(no subject)
5 or 6 days ago I wrote that I was going to post a real entry in just a few minutes. Apparently I define a few as 8,640. So journal entry now:
new york was awesome. Once in my life I really, really want to live there. The problem is that rent is ridiculously expensive. I figured everything else would be too, that's generally how things work in cities. Rent in Paris is high, things are expensive (and have 20% IVA sales tax), rent in London is high, things are ridiculously expensive (and are 50% VAT) New York breaks the trend. Food was inexpensive, which is good because when I go places that's pretty much all I spend my money on. PIzza, bagels, sushi, pizza bagels, sushi pizza. Just kidding on those last too. Not a big fan of the mixing ethnic foods, although the great Gabby did find us Asian Pub which was fantastic. plus they don't card. So that is where we went to get wicked drunk. And wicked drunk we did get. In the park, in Asian pub, in the karaoke bar.
Plus we did other stuff. whitney museum of modern american art. read: posters with slanty handwriting about how evil bush is and A/V projects featuring lots of naked people. some of them were actually pretty good, if you consider naked people art. also american museum of natural history, which was great, central park, which I loved. and the weather was ridiculous. bright sunny, clear, hardly rained. for LA weather it was just decent but for NYC it was gorgeous. We were all happy to only have to wear one jacket but a lot of the locals were walkin around in shorts and t shirts gabbing about how great the weather is.
Then I come home and LA looks like NY. Gray, cold, rainy. But still good to be home, although I'm already plotting my next escape to the big apple. I just love the atmosphere. and I love the subway. I have an obsession with them. The tube, le metro, whatever they call it in budapest, even the red line in LA. A little boy's fascination with trains, the image if the seedy underbelly of the city, even though in all those cities I listed they're now perfectly safe, the effecient egalitarian vision of cheap fast transport for everyone in the city. I call it a vision cuase that's what it is in LA, but I guess in NYC and London and any place in Europe it's already been realized. It gives me hope that one day LA will do it, but it's a long way off. I think I've already done my rant about public transport and urban planning in LA so I won't go into it again, but the city is going to have to change, a lot, pretty soon. I hope villaraigosas plan to extend the red line to the coast makes it, not because it will benefit me, by the time it's done I'll have graduated and probably won't be living on the west side, but because it has to get done someday, and it might as well be tody. I can't figure out if LA is so spread out because our freeway system has allowed it, or if our freeway system has grown to support (somewhat) a city that's so spread out because of other factors. I think its the former. so maybe building a subway system before the market or the public demands it might help to transform LA into the type of city that needs it. It'd be better than letting it get dense enough that it needs that system and then starting it.
But back on track I've had a good time since getting home. Last night we went to this club in hollywood called the world. or the ruby, or something. it's 80's style. I got there, and my first response was oh my god, I have never seen an uglier group of people in my life. I've seen larger groups of ugly people, i noticed that NY is significantly less attractive than LA, but this was a very dense group of very ugly people. I don't usually dance on stage, because I can't dance and I don't want the embarassment of being asked to leave and make room for the beautiful people, but last night analise and katie and their friends and I were the beautiful people, one of the most beautiful groups of people there. I knew they weren't going to ask us to leave, because we were the hottest peple there. but I wasn't dancing very well, because when I'm drunk I dance decently, but I wasn't drunk so I danced pretty horribly.
The question about the subway has made me think about where I will be living in 2, 3, 5 years. I guess it depends on if I get into grad school anywhere. There isn't a great demand for science majors with a 3.2 GPA. I can hope that being in the most difficult majors with the highest curve, most asians, and most pre meds will be taken into account but other than the admissions board at UCLA, how many schools are going to know the notoriety that MIMG has at UCLA. Plus even consdering, how difficult my major is, and how everyone else in it is an asian who wants to go to ucla med school, a 3.2 GPA isn't amazing. So I'll apply and go wherever I get accepted. I would love to stay at UCLA but I unless I kick major ass on my GRE's which I havent even started studying for, I don't think it's probable, possible, but not probable. I really need to figure out what my odds and options are, becuase I honestly don't know where I should go. UCLA, stanford, harvard would all be great, but I won't get in to any of those, so what is the second tier of molecular biology research and what are my odds there? I doubt any of you knows, so I guess I should see my counselor.
new york was awesome. Once in my life I really, really want to live there. The problem is that rent is ridiculously expensive. I figured everything else would be too, that's generally how things work in cities. Rent in Paris is high, things are expensive (and have 20% IVA sales tax), rent in London is high, things are ridiculously expensive (and are 50% VAT) New York breaks the trend. Food was inexpensive, which is good because when I go places that's pretty much all I spend my money on. PIzza, bagels, sushi, pizza bagels, sushi pizza. Just kidding on those last too. Not a big fan of the mixing ethnic foods, although the great Gabby did find us Asian Pub which was fantastic. plus they don't card. So that is where we went to get wicked drunk. And wicked drunk we did get. In the park, in Asian pub, in the karaoke bar.
Plus we did other stuff. whitney museum of modern american art. read: posters with slanty handwriting about how evil bush is and A/V projects featuring lots of naked people. some of them were actually pretty good, if you consider naked people art. also american museum of natural history, which was great, central park, which I loved. and the weather was ridiculous. bright sunny, clear, hardly rained. for LA weather it was just decent but for NYC it was gorgeous. We were all happy to only have to wear one jacket but a lot of the locals were walkin around in shorts and t shirts gabbing about how great the weather is.
Then I come home and LA looks like NY. Gray, cold, rainy. But still good to be home, although I'm already plotting my next escape to the big apple. I just love the atmosphere. and I love the subway. I have an obsession with them. The tube, le metro, whatever they call it in budapest, even the red line in LA. A little boy's fascination with trains, the image if the seedy underbelly of the city, even though in all those cities I listed they're now perfectly safe, the effecient egalitarian vision of cheap fast transport for everyone in the city. I call it a vision cuase that's what it is in LA, but I guess in NYC and London and any place in Europe it's already been realized. It gives me hope that one day LA will do it, but it's a long way off. I think I've already done my rant about public transport and urban planning in LA so I won't go into it again, but the city is going to have to change, a lot, pretty soon. I hope villaraigosas plan to extend the red line to the coast makes it, not because it will benefit me, by the time it's done I'll have graduated and probably won't be living on the west side, but because it has to get done someday, and it might as well be tody. I can't figure out if LA is so spread out because our freeway system has allowed it, or if our freeway system has grown to support (somewhat) a city that's so spread out because of other factors. I think its the former. so maybe building a subway system before the market or the public demands it might help to transform LA into the type of city that needs it. It'd be better than letting it get dense enough that it needs that system and then starting it.
But back on track I've had a good time since getting home. Last night we went to this club in hollywood called the world. or the ruby, or something. it's 80's style. I got there, and my first response was oh my god, I have never seen an uglier group of people in my life. I've seen larger groups of ugly people, i noticed that NY is significantly less attractive than LA, but this was a very dense group of very ugly people. I don't usually dance on stage, because I can't dance and I don't want the embarassment of being asked to leave and make room for the beautiful people, but last night analise and katie and their friends and I were the beautiful people, one of the most beautiful groups of people there. I knew they weren't going to ask us to leave, because we were the hottest peple there. but I wasn't dancing very well, because when I'm drunk I dance decently, but I wasn't drunk so I danced pretty horribly.
The question about the subway has made me think about where I will be living in 2, 3, 5 years. I guess it depends on if I get into grad school anywhere. There isn't a great demand for science majors with a 3.2 GPA. I can hope that being in the most difficult majors with the highest curve, most asians, and most pre meds will be taken into account but other than the admissions board at UCLA, how many schools are going to know the notoriety that MIMG has at UCLA. Plus even consdering, how difficult my major is, and how everyone else in it is an asian who wants to go to ucla med school, a 3.2 GPA isn't amazing. So I'll apply and go wherever I get accepted. I would love to stay at UCLA but I unless I kick major ass on my GRE's which I havent even started studying for, I don't think it's probable, possible, but not probable. I really need to figure out what my odds and options are, becuase I honestly don't know where I should go. UCLA, stanford, harvard would all be great, but I won't get in to any of those, so what is the second tier of molecular biology research and what are my odds there? I doubt any of you knows, so I guess I should see my counselor.