Happy Holidays from your Madison Ave Girls

Happy Holidays to you all! I wish for all of you to be smothered with love, good food, and lots of presents this holiday season!

xoxo,

asia and the apple

First Real Snow This Season

This weekend was maybe one of the better ones this year! I got a Christmas tree on Friday… and by got I mean dragged one home from Washington Heights in the middle of the night! It snowed all day Saturday and the city was just amazing in all the white flurries falling from the sky! And Sunday the day was bright and white all around! It was truly an amazing weekend and I swear God engineered it all for me and the sake of my happiness!

 

Phil's Birthday/ Indian Street Food/Robin Williams

Filipek's birthday was this week so to celebrate we went to a dinner and a show... the dinner was at the Biryani Street Cart (winner of the 2009 Vendi Awards) it was DELISH!!! then we went to town hall to see Robin Williams stand up show! HILARIOUS! there was some good toilet humor... one i enjoyed in particular was him descirbing his idea of a human poo powered car and how a bean burrito would get him from LA to Manhattan!

We finished off the night at EPSN Zone with drinks and using up the rest of the points on Phil's game card that he got a couple months ago... i realized that i truly suck at games... well air hockey and car racing i can still hold my own... the other stuff not so much.

Faaaaaaaaalafel

Totally forgot to mention that there was falafel involved this past weekend...
Set the effin catapult! Son of a Tit! You're a little asshole chucka! Slappin' the Bass! Those fish tacos are the tits! Big time! SUCK IT! Half a cup!

Thanksgiving Shit Show

Thanksgiving weekend was a total shit show! Started with the parade and ended up in a three way bitch slap fight! Good Times! Anna and I made ourselves a delish dinner, drank beer and watched movies, Agita got into town early Friday morning and we started off with a bang and kept going 100mph for the rest of the weekend. The whole weekend was a mix of quotes from "Land of the Lost" and "I Love You, Man" spiked peppermint mochas, bud light, jager, and cupcakes. Weekends/weeks when Agita comes to visit are always guaranteed fun and always end with a hangover. Can't wait for New Years 2010! And HUGE discovery of the weekend was: Anna can totally hang!! who woulda guessed...

its been a while...

...since my last post. sometime around the end of May work got crazy hectic as my project was nearing completion. May thru September was basically a sprint at the end of a two year marathon. Once that finish line was crossed and the Red Ribbon was cut (by a CEO and a senator of Jersey) i have been in recovery mode.


To make this short since my last entry here is a list of significant happenings in my life:


- My 25th Birthday

- My mother's 50th Birthday

- Labor Day weekend Szajda wedding

- Started new projects at Columbia University Medical Center

- Developed a crazy allergic reaction to my contact lenses

- Agita visited and we went to the Jay Z VMA afterparty

- Had an EXCELLENT review at work

- Met a nice boy...

- Celebrated 2 YEARS in NYC!

- Poconos for Kimmy's engagement party

- Gaby's wedding!

- Basita's Baby Shower!

- Told my boss about my traveling plans

- ... so called "nice boy" stopped calling...

- Agita ran IN the NY Marathon!

- Finally went to Boston!

- Started running in hopes to be able to run a half marathon in March! (thank you Agita for the inspiration and showing me that you can run marathons and still have a drinking fun social life!)

So all in all recovery has been pretty great! with exception to the whole "orange boy" situation but whatever... as usual i am sure I'll get over it.

The plan is to resurrect this blog... as well as create a new one that will focus mostly on world travel preparation.

Subway

There's a kid on the subway around 7 years old licking the pole and his dad isn't saying/doing anything about it! I just puked in my mouth a little!

Home Sweet Home

I wentto California for Mother's Day! I missed my flight to Long Beach, but after causing a scene at the jet blue counter got a free flight to Burbank the same day! Thank you Jet Blue!

it was so nice to see my Mommy and the rest of my family/friends! it was a pretty mellow weekend mostly spent in Huntington Beach which I must admit the weather there beats the weather anywhere else! It was so nice to walk around in shorts and a t-shirt and to sit in my back yard sipping on a minty drink while soaking in every ounce of sunshine!

Agita was in NY while I was in So Cal... leave it to us to be on opposite sides of the country at the same time! We have decided that she must come back soon and Puck Fair better prepare itself!

Five Boro Bike Tour (numero dos)

This year’s bike tour was completely different from last years! It was COLD, WET & MISERABLE! But all in all we managed to have a blast! Twelve of us Stantechies participated in the tour! We started off in great high spirits and ended up with chattering teeth and a high need for a warm shower! I don’t think I’ve enjoyed a hot shower more! Well… maybe that one time when I came home from ZLOT 2000 where I was allowed to shower twice in the two weeks I was there… but that’s a different story!

Half way through the race my brakes stopped working as I was going down a hill in Brooklyn that lead straight into a left hand turn! I just screamed as I was going down and was totally anticipating a complete wipe out… but being the crafty and fast thinker that I am I tried my best to run over as much pot holes as possible and to weave right and left to slow myself down. Once I got down the hill and around the turn safely (only pooping my pants twice) one of my coworkers helped me fix the brake and I was fine for the rest of the ride. The last 15 miles were the worst since the temperature dropped, the rain got heavier and the wind picked up! Then once we got to Staten Island 42 miles later we had to wait out in the cold for the ferry to take us back to the island. I have never been in a place with so many frozen bikers who actually paid to be there! It was a very adventurous yet terrifying experience but I would totally do it again next year!

Vegas Baby

What was originally planned as a girls weekend turned into an asia/archie weekend! I flew in to vegas at 11:30pm archie picked me up from the airport and we went straight to luxor for a night of bar/club hopping. Saturday we pool hopped and eventually ended up at carnival court with the crazy bartenders who balance 10 bottles of jager on their head while walking around the bar!

After a whole day of catching up and drinking we met up with archies friends at rain where the guest dj was paul oakenfoul (sp chk?) The music was awesome! And they had crazy trapeze dancers above the dance floor! We ended the night at ghost bar which overlooks all of vegas. I tried to dance off as much of the alcohol as possible and it seemed to work because now I am sitting poolside at the luxor and feel fantastic. A little dehydrated but feeling good!

Viva Las Vegas!

Coney Island

This past weekend was gorgeous and warm! Friday night was the season opener for Stantec softball in central park! I played 2nd base; I made a few great catches and some nice hits! On saturday I made plans with OG and a few coworkers to go on a bike ride to Coney Island! Sooo fun! We ate hot dogs and drank beer on the boardwalk... Didn't get to get on any of the rides but I will def have to go back and do so!

bye bye camera

While on a pleasant bike ride around Manhattan two weeks ago with a few of my co-workers I took amazing self-timer pictures of the group! It was a beautiful day, slightly windy but perfect riding weather! We stopped at the lighhouse underneath the George Washington Bridge and snapped a few more photos. Then we headed of to Inwood park where you can see the Bronx right across the river. As I reached into my backpack i realized that I have left my camera on one of the picnic tables by the lighthouse. We rode back as fast as possible but the camera already vanished... :( poop!

Bootcamp Update

I am halfway thru week 2 of bootcamp! The first week was KILLER! After day 3 I couldn't cough because my abs hurt so much and I walked with a limp. yup a limp. but after going to hot yoga over the weekend I feel much better and don't dread the 4:45am wake up as much.

The camp itself is really fun. Though I do curse god from time to time mid push up, after its all said and done with it's not that bad. We do a lot of running around to keep our heart rates up in between doing core exercises like push ups, planks, mountain climbers, sit ups, lunges, and squats.

The one thing I struggle the most in is push-ups... Being a waterpolo player/swimmer we never had to do push ups so I look like a complete idiot doing them!

First Signs of Spring

It seems like Spring is really taking its time to share it self with us! it wasn't until this past weekend in Pennsilvania Country that I saw first signs of spring's color: an iris flower poking through the dead of winter. And yesterday while walking home from work, yes its finally getting warm enough to walk around outside, I saw daffodils scattered through a small park! Spring in New York has got to be the most beautiful season! There are thousands of daffodils and tulips spilling out of flower pots along the street, coating fields in Central Park and patching the dead ground in little parks through out the city! Can't wait to sit outside a brunch spot, sip on a mimosa and take it all in!

Shinny New Bicycle

I bought a new bicylce yesterday! Its so pretty and I can't wait to ride it all summer long! Olga and I got a pretty sweet deal yesterday as we put our negotiating skills to the test... I get to pick up my new wheels on Saturday morning! I don't entirely know exactly where I will store my new bike but those are just details I can figure out later! Last year I participated in the 5 boro bike tour and I am all signed up to do it again this year, May 3rd! Also, in an effort to be more active a few of us from the office have decided to organize rides during the weekend. One plan is to ride out to Long Beach on a random Saturday and go to the beach! Probably would be wise to do so before it gets too hot...

St Patricks Recap

St. Patrick's Day this year was a success! nothing to crazy but just perfect for a Tuesday evening of drinking! Met up with OG and Oscar and Phil at Puck Fair after my meeting, searched for the hot Irish accented bartender i met there a month ago but no luck :(, then I met up with Szupinska and Habrat at an art gallery opening... Only in New York you can call a guy standing in the corner making shadow puppets in blinking red lights art! After getting out cultural fill for the day we went back to Puck Fair met up with more people and ended the night at the Spring Lounge followed by some drunken Ben's Pizza eating! all in all a nice way to spend st. patty's day.

NOTE: I highly recommend Guinness to add the following warning on their label: Consuming Guinness might result in excessive gas. Please drink responsibly! Slanche!

day dreaming

so I am sitting at my desk at work and day dreaming about my future travels and thinking how awesome it will be to be able to write blog entries from random internet cafes in even more random locations like Malaysia or a tiny Indonesian Island while my beautifully handsome and tan lover of that month waits for me outside smoking his cigarette every so sexy as the sun is adding extra highlights to his already blond streaked hair ;)! I did mention that this was a day dream, right? Why can't God just drop $10,000 in my lab so I can fast forward all this and be there already!?!

Boot Camp

So I have realized that I am technically giving away $73 a month to the NY Sports Club! Thats a lot of money!! I go to the gym about 2 to 3 times A MONTH!! thats about $25 per session! and I am definitely not seeing any results... no surprise there. So after analyzing the situation I have decided to cancel my membership and sign up for boot camp! its a bit pricey but I have a feeling that this will be the perfect way for me to get fit and healthy! It starts April 6th and runs for 4 weeks. The classes are one hour monday thru friday at 5:30am! yes that is 5:30AM!! craziness! The plan is to wake up at 5:00am, roll out of bed into workout clothes and rollerblade to Battery Park! I am so excited (and a bit worried) to see how I will adjust to this drastic change in waking time!

Got lucky on St. Patty's day!

No, not that kind of "lucky"! ;) naughty!

But lucky enough! I just realized that my 4:30pm meeting today is right next door to my favorite bar Puck Fair!!! I am sooo excited about the fact that right after my meeting i will be able to walk down stairs and have a St. Patty Drink at my favorite bar! I'm so excited!

happy memory

I was looking through my iphoto albums and this picture brought upon me a warm and happy feeling! look how amazingly yummy the eggs benedict looks!!! I heart brunch in New York!! This was taken on my birthday last year.

Winter gone... (i think)

For this winter season I decided to invest in a new snowboard... I think I rode my old one out (i used it at least 5 times each season for the past 7 years). It was still in good enough condition to pass down to my 16 year old cousin who recently began to learn how to snowboard.

I bought last season's Burton Troop board which is so freaking cute and rides so well! I went up to Gore mountain with the BK crew over the weekend and realized that it would probably be the last time that I will get to board this season :( . its such a sad feeling especially since I had such a great season this year! We had spring conditions with lots of slush on the bottom of the mountain. I went with just a sweatshirt on... on our drive down the mountain it started raining and I realized that Spring is here... Crazy how it feels like just last weekend I unwrapped my brand new snowboard from its shipping package and fitted the binding to it for the first time and got all packed up to explore Gore mountain for the first time! sigh...

Note to self: enjoy little moments now because time is seriously FLYING by!

Snow Day!

So after staying in all weekend, well I did go out to brunch on Sunday and a movie, I am still sick!! But the best part of being sick today is that we had a lot of snow dumped on the city over night and all my roommates are at home. So I have been on my couch and so far we ordered in breakfast, watched Sleepy Hollow, Price is Right, and Grand Torino! Now we just ordered Lupe's Mexican Food and are waiting for it to be delivered while watching the food network so we can work up our salivary glands... Next we will be watching Wanted and after that who knows... I love sick days like this I actually think it is curing me of my sickness! yay!

New Game Plan

This year will be a year of saving! I have decided that I should save as much money as I can from now until next March and then set off to travel the world for a year or two! I am already starting to research means of travel and places to go. The one thing missing is someone to do it with! If anyone feels like they can save around $6,000 - $10,000 this year and would be willing to sleep in crappy hostels and meet amazing people and see the beauties of the world in a stress and drama free environment then by all means let me know!! Most of the people I met on my short trip to Thailand said that they all stopped in Australia for 6 months to work. I figure that maybe I would end up there around June/July (their winter) and work at a ski resort of some sorts for the season!

First things first is to start GROCERY shopping and making my own lunches and dinners. Or limit my lunch to $5 footlongs/$2.50 slices of pizza :)

Quick Thailand Recap in Pictures

DAY 1: Floating Market & Tiger Temple

DAY 2 - 4: Cambodia (Siem Riep)

DAY 5 - 7: Koh Samet

DAY 8 - 14: Koh Chang

DAY 15 - 17: Bangkok

Korea w/ Brooklyn

*quick note: I am writing this blogs at the free Internet cafe in Seoul, I will edit all entries when I get back to NYC and interject photos were necessary

As I board the plane and settle in for what is bound to be 15 hours of hell flying over the arctic to the eastern world I have one mission: Find myself somebody to hang out with for the 13 hour (yes 13, not 10 hours as I had thought before) layover in Seoul, Korea.

To my surprise the second I sit down in my seat I immediately pass out as the 4 small children in the two rows ahead of me are running and screaming and crying in their row (NOTE: Remind me to never unless its an emergency travel with babies! Its not like they will remember any of the trip and why put them through all the stress of cabin pressure?!). I wake up to the voice of the pilot estimating that it should take only 2.5 hours to reach the destination. I thought I was dreaming when I woke up because there is no way that I could have slept 12 hours on a plane and miss all the snacks and dinner that was handed out (unlike domestic flights, international flights still take care of their people!).

As the lady next to me got up to use the bathroom I noticed a friendly, fluffy haired guy sitting one seat away from me. I smiled and inquired where his final destination was... THAILAND! I was very excited about this and immediately started making plans with him to explore Korea as soon as we got off the plane, so what if he wasn't an available tall man... I figured a hipster from Brooklyn on his was to meet up with his girlfriend in Thailand would do just fine.

We hopped on a bus that was heading towards city hall, found a map of the city and took off flowing the itinerary of an article I printed out that explained exactly what to do in Seoul if you have a 10+ hour layover.

Thank god I kept my coat on during my flight because apparently Korea, unlike Thailand, is as FREEZING as New York!!

With my new friend in tow we grabbed cups of black coffee at the Seoul station and headed to Nandaemun or the "Great South Gate" is one of the old gates of Seoul that used to protect the city from Tigers, built over 600 years ago... apparently 600 years did a lot of damage because the whole thing was under scaffolding :( I was a bit disappointed about not getting to see the real thing.

We then headed over to the Gyeongbokgung palace which was amazing! I have never seen anything like it. The Koreans are very detail oriented when it comes to painting their temples/palaces! We were there pretty early so not too many tourists were around and we could just wander around without having to fight off any crowds.

My Brooklyn buddy didn't have a coat and it was a freezing morning so we headed to Insadong which is a cluster of inter winded alleyways with lots of tea shops and restaurants along with other touristy souvenir shops. We had delicious tea at a cafe that looked as if you were sitting in an old train. After wondering around some more we both realized that Koreans don't open shop until 11am so with our empty tummies we decided to go across the street to check out the Jogyesa Temple. Before you enter the temple one must take off their shoes, once inside you have to put your hands together and bow showing respect. Sitting down before the three HUGE Buddhas that were behind the "altar" we were surrounded by older Korean ladies who were praying. Unlike people kneeling and saying a silent prayer at a church these ladies would stand up, bend over, and kneel a ridiculous amount of times as they held a string of beads that I assume is similar to the catholic rosary.

After a half hour of meditation, we had to sucome to the growls of our stomachs, and headed back to Insadong for Lunch. By this time the streets were filled with more people then before, mostly business dressed. We chose a nice wooden restaurant in one of the alleyways off to the side. We ordered Bulgogi, Kimchi stew and a pork dish with the help of my printouts about Korean food... I was not about to accidentally order dog or fish heads or something equally disgusting! I have decided that kimchi is not for me and that if I were to be forced to eat bulgogi for the rest of my life I would be happy to do so! The bulgogi was delicious!! I have never had anything like it! My next mission is to track down good Korean restaurants in NYC and start eating bulgogi on a regular basis!

Feeling stuffed we decided to try out the subway system instead of walking back to the bus station. Both being from New York we were floored when we discovered how sparkling clean and advanced the subways and stations were. The subway cars are a lot wider and hum lightly while in motion. A ladies voice announces in Korean, Chinese, and English the name of each stop and there are televisions inside that play advertisements as well as show the names of the stops. It was quite an easy adventure to get back to where we needed to go.

We got back on the bus we were both satisfied that we did not get stuck at the airport for such a long time especially since there was still a 6 hour flight to Bangkok awaiting us. Once at the airport we took advantage of the free Internet and the Asiana rest area which has a kids zone, a spa, and a movie room! The airports of East are very human friendly and shiny clean!

All in all my first steps on the Eastern land have been positive and I am very happy to have ventured out and explored the city as for who knows if I will ever have the opportunity to visit Korea in the future.

Seoul 10 hr layover

So I just realized that I am leaving for Thailand tomorrow and I have yet to plan my 10 hours in Korea. I think I'm going to stay late at work tonight and print a bunch of info on Seoul so I can read and plan on the plane. But it should be really fun as I have no clue about any history of Korea other then that the South and North don't get along, I do not know ANY Korean, I am as white as they get, and I have 10 hours to go to town, site see, eat, and make it back for my flight to Thailand. I have a feeling this will be an interesting adventure... I wouldn't say I am scared about this idea I am merely amused with myself and wish I had a camera following me so I can watch it later and laugh at my reactions to all of the unknown that will be presented during these 10 hours...

Now what are the chances that a very cute, tall and funny man will have the same layover and be as adventurous and we will have a 10 hour romance in a completely foreign world? Damn I should have gone to church this Sunday and prayed for this! Tonight you can find me kneeling bedside saying 100 Hail Mary’s and praying to God for a cute, tall and funny man to wonder around Seoul, Korea with on Wednesday!

Plane Crash in the Hudson River

A US Airway plane just crashed into the Hudson RIver in New York!! It is FREEZING outside!!!

New Year

I would like to reflect back on how I welcomed this new year of 2009! I was fortunate enough to be able to stay in California for 2 whole weeks! Spending the first week with my family in Southern Cali and spending the second in South Lake Tahoe. It was great to be able to eat wigilia with my mom, dad, brother and cousins and to be able to stuff our faces all over again Christmas day! I don't think there was a moment where I actually felt hungry as I would be shoving something in my mouth making sure that feeling would never come. I am very grateful to be able to indulge like this and know that not many people are as lucky as I am to have a polish mama around to cook and bake these delicious treats! Its also funny how I feel my mama is most satisfied when everyone is sitting around the table, eating platefuls of the food she took such care in preparing!

South Lake Tahoe was a blast! There were over 30 of us in 4 different locations! Some where staying in kirkwood, some in the casinos, some in a huge cabin/house, and my group was in a condo appx. a mile from the strip! We had a new place to party every night and new years eve was spent at a local pub just off the strip to avoid the massive crowds of drunken youth! I was able to get in 3 AMAZING days on the slopes. The weather was unreal and I was riding down the mountain grinning from ear to ear taking in the breathtaking views of Lake Tahoe from atop Heavenly Mountain. I don't think there is any place like this in the world and if there is I hope I get to ride it one day!

Now I am about a week and a half into reality and still each night go home to check my facebook to see if anyone has posted new pictures or new comments from Lake Tahoe. My room is a mess and I have yet to start to pack for my Thailand trip which is in exactly a week!