P'ton & B'day
First of all, the ticket is $4 more than when I was a student. What is that? Annoying. Secondly, I managed to catch a double-decker express train that only made 4 stops total (the 2nd of which was P'ton Junction). That was pretty cool.
It was weird to be back. Getting off the dinky, walking toward Blair Arch, I actually felt a bit nostalgic. Warm and fuzzy even. That was dampened a little bit by the appearance of what, in my mind, are typical-looking Princeton students. (You know the kind I mean.) I went to Sakura Express fora lunch of my old favourite - Unagi-don - until Rebecca met me. We then went to Small World and chatted nonstop until it was time for her capoeira class. While she did that, I went in search of Ueda-sensei. I discovered she was on leave (which I had suspected) and that she was going to be the undergrad representative next year. Exciting, in a way, though perhaps a little annoying for her as well (administrative work always interferes with personal goals). I need to email her.
I then hung out in Frist, preparing for my Sunday SAT class, and then browsed the U-Store bookshop. I picked Rebecca up from Dillon, and we headed to The Bent Spoon (she had two gift cards). I ran into Meg Meyer, who had been the choir's soloist at Carnegie Hall, there. Rebecca and I chatted some more (she was very excited about having received her capoeira name "Rapunzeo" that day) while eating our ice cream, stopped by a wine store afterward, walked to her apartment, stopped so she could shower, then went to her friend Roger's house for dinner. Dinner was a lovely home-cooked meal of tabouleh, mushroom and barley soup, guacamole (which was really good, and I don't like avocado!), brownie cake, mango sorbet (from the bent spoon), and red wine. It was a large-ish party of grad students, all interesting and fun. As an undergrad there, I would have felt much more awkward about going with Rebecca, but it was just lovely now.
The next morning I left Rebecca's place around 10 and walked to campus. I sat in a Kalaa rehearsal, the first rehearsal of the battle scene (they're doing the Ramayana for this spring's show). It was a lot of fun to watch and reminisce how the group operated when I was there, and then I hung out with Uma afterward. We watched clips from their show last year (which was really awesome!) and just talked about the state of the groups and plans for it etc. Then Julia called me from Frist, so I met up with her, Ryan, and Lev. After some confusion, we all decided to go to the matinee show, though Darren would have to come in at intermission. The party in the end consisted of Darren, Lev, Julia M, Ryan, Emily, Dave, Ed, Ed's girlfriend Sarah, Don, Julia R (Don's fiancee), and their friend Bry/ian. The show was alright. There were only 10 people in it, no girls. Gus is abroad, so not in the show, and no one knew where Wendy was (though her name was in the program). After the show, Julia, Ed, Darren, Don, Lev immediately jumped up on stage to juggle. I chatted with Julia R and Sarah, the latter of whom has some pretty interesting stories from her job at a publisher of Science Journals.
We then went to Tiger Noodle for dinner (I ran into Arthi on the way, who'd been a freshman in Kalaa my last year), where Lev's friend Eric met up with a us. We strolled down Nassau St, I stopped at the Princeton Record Exchange for a birthday present for Brett, while the others checked out Micawber Books (which is closing). My phone died. We stopped at Bent Spoon again so those who wanted to get ice cream could. We then began parting ways. Sarah and Ed went to Sarah's family's house. Don, Julia R, and Bry/ian headed to their car, the others went to Lev's. I stopped in the U-Store again where I picked up a Joyce Carol Oates novel, then headed toward the dinky. Unfortunately I'd just missed it by 10 minutes and had to wait another 50. I went to the lobby of the Berlind Theater across the street and plugged in my phone while doing more SAT prep.
When I got back to the city, I met up with Brett and Jordan in the lower east side, though I was tired and in an asocial mood. We found a less-crowded bar where we had a drink, then headed back to my apt. The next morning I taught SAT class, which didn't go fantastically. As the material gets harder, I definitely confuse more students. I met up with Brett afterward, we got brunch at a diner, then went back to his house. After watching Happy Gilmore, I promptly fell asleep until 9pm. Though I was so unwilling, Brett managed to wake me up. We headed back into the city to see Brian Blade at the Village Vanguard. Though people are annoying, and the place a bit crowded, the show was really really good. Afterward we got a midnight dinner at Veselka, a 24/7 Polish place at 9th and 2nd Ave.
A very full weekend.
It was weird to be back. Getting off the dinky, walking toward Blair Arch, I actually felt a bit nostalgic. Warm and fuzzy even. That was dampened a little bit by the appearance of what, in my mind, are typical-looking Princeton students. (You know the kind I mean.) I went to Sakura Express fora lunch of my old favourite - Unagi-don - until Rebecca met me. We then went to Small World and chatted nonstop until it was time for her capoeira class. While she did that, I went in search of Ueda-sensei. I discovered she was on leave (which I had suspected) and that she was going to be the undergrad representative next year. Exciting, in a way, though perhaps a little annoying for her as well (administrative work always interferes with personal goals). I need to email her.
I then hung out in Frist, preparing for my Sunday SAT class, and then browsed the U-Store bookshop. I picked Rebecca up from Dillon, and we headed to The Bent Spoon (she had two gift cards). I ran into Meg Meyer, who had been the choir's soloist at Carnegie Hall, there. Rebecca and I chatted some more (she was very excited about having received her capoeira name "Rapunzeo" that day) while eating our ice cream, stopped by a wine store afterward, walked to her apartment, stopped so she could shower, then went to her friend Roger's house for dinner. Dinner was a lovely home-cooked meal of tabouleh, mushroom and barley soup, guacamole (which was really good, and I don't like avocado!), brownie cake, mango sorbet (from the bent spoon), and red wine. It was a large-ish party of grad students, all interesting and fun. As an undergrad there, I would have felt much more awkward about going with Rebecca, but it was just lovely now.
The next morning I left Rebecca's place around 10 and walked to campus. I sat in a Kalaa rehearsal, the first rehearsal of the battle scene (they're doing the Ramayana for this spring's show). It was a lot of fun to watch and reminisce how the group operated when I was there, and then I hung out with Uma afterward. We watched clips from their show last year (which was really awesome!) and just talked about the state of the groups and plans for it etc. Then Julia called me from Frist, so I met up with her, Ryan, and Lev. After some confusion, we all decided to go to the matinee show, though Darren would have to come in at intermission. The party in the end consisted of Darren, Lev, Julia M, Ryan, Emily, Dave, Ed, Ed's girlfriend Sarah, Don, Julia R (Don's fiancee), and their friend Bry/ian. The show was alright. There were only 10 people in it, no girls. Gus is abroad, so not in the show, and no one knew where Wendy was (though her name was in the program). After the show, Julia, Ed, Darren, Don, Lev immediately jumped up on stage to juggle. I chatted with Julia R and Sarah, the latter of whom has some pretty interesting stories from her job at a publisher of Science Journals.
We then went to Tiger Noodle for dinner (I ran into Arthi on the way, who'd been a freshman in Kalaa my last year), where Lev's friend Eric met up with a us. We strolled down Nassau St, I stopped at the Princeton Record Exchange for a birthday present for Brett, while the others checked out Micawber Books (which is closing). My phone died. We stopped at Bent Spoon again so those who wanted to get ice cream could. We then began parting ways. Sarah and Ed went to Sarah's family's house. Don, Julia R, and Bry/ian headed to their car, the others went to Lev's. I stopped in the U-Store again where I picked up a Joyce Carol Oates novel, then headed toward the dinky. Unfortunately I'd just missed it by 10 minutes and had to wait another 50. I went to the lobby of the Berlind Theater across the street and plugged in my phone while doing more SAT prep.
When I got back to the city, I met up with Brett and Jordan in the lower east side, though I was tired and in an asocial mood. We found a less-crowded bar where we had a drink, then headed back to my apt. The next morning I taught SAT class, which didn't go fantastically. As the material gets harder, I definitely confuse more students. I met up with Brett afterward, we got brunch at a diner, then went back to his house. After watching Happy Gilmore, I promptly fell asleep until 9pm. Though I was so unwilling, Brett managed to wake me up. We headed back into the city to see Brian Blade at the Village Vanguard. Though people are annoying, and the place a bit crowded, the show was really really good. Afterward we got a midnight dinner at Veselka, a 24/7 Polish place at 9th and 2nd Ave.
A very full weekend.
posted by Bibhatsu at 13:21
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home