Bringing in the New Lunar Year

Martin Luther King Day

I know I complain about this to maybe even a bothersome degree but the cold is something I am not fond of in the least. I am almost positive that I have seasonal affective disorder (S.A.D.). I read somewhere that people from Scandinavia have the highest rates of depression. Well, that's no surprise being as you never get to see the sun! Oh, the sun... how I've missed you.

The New Yorkers I've talked to all have agreed that this winter has been unseasonably cold (go global warming!). As a consequence of this (aside from 7 degree Fahrenheit temperatures) is that there is also an abundance of snowfall. And as a consequence of that, Central Park ends up looking like this:

Mini snowmen enjoying the view at the Bethesda Fountain

This was Martin Luther King Day (1/29/09) after Andrea, Naomi and I made cards for hospitalized/retarded children/elderly people at the Jewish Community Center on the Upper West Side; probably one of the nicest community centers I've ever seen in my life. Complete with a health fitness center, auditorium, audtorium balconies, art studios, and spirituality centers, the the JCC made me want to convert to Judaism just so that I could use their gym. The whole time I was there, I was a bit confused as to who I was making cards for and so resorted to trying to make mine with messages and pictures that could be universally applied to any hospitalized/retarded child or elderly person. This involved many stick figures and words like "love" and "care," since I figured that no matter what state you're in you could always use more of those things.

After lunch at Manhattan Diner, we walked through the falling snow to Central Park. "Let's build a snowman!" Andrea suggested.

Me: "Ugh. Really?"

Naomi: "Yeah! Everyone's doing it!"

Me: "Ugh. ok."

We ended up covering up a rock with snow, adding "towers" and "turrets" to it so that it became a rock castle. I would show you a picture, but I didn't take one because by the time we were finished I could not feel my fingers anymore.

Central Park really was like a winter wonderland. I don't know if the chemical properties of snow have anything to do with it but everything seemed so quiet and calm. Truly beautiful. It was hard to hate all the couples that we passed but I did anyway.

Westchester Animation Trip

My friend Mohan, who spends a lot of time in White Plains, NY (a suburb a 45 min train ride north from Grand Central) invited Naomi and I to an animation gallery opening one night. Naomi, if I didn't mention this earlier is one of Andrea's roommates. I got persuaded into going largely because Naomi did not want to be a third wheel as Mohan was bringing his lady friend (Ji-won). Ironically, I end up being something like a 5th wheel, though in reality I couldn't care any less.

Right when we enter, Naomi hits it off with some animation artist and literally moves probably a grand total of 10 feet throughout the entire 2 hours that we were there. So I wandered the galleries, looking at old cartoons, cartoon advertisements, storyboards, posters, cartoon memorabilia and the like. All in all, interesting exhibit but so disorganized and in the end not very informative if you a) were not already an animator which I would say about 80% of the people there were or b) knew very little about animation to begin with. Oh, and it was an art gallery reception so there was lots of wine.

Sichuan Hot Pot is the Second Love of My Life

... the first being, of course, Chester (I know, you can barf). But I cannot imagine life without Sichuan hot pot. My tongue feels like its on trip of numbness and ecstacy (oh Sichuan peppercorns!) every time I have it and it complements the winter cold perfectly.

One of my friends/coworkers, Alex (who is so gorgeous but so gay) is my New York Nate replacement. Just for the record, I am not insinuating that Nate is gay. I forget which culinary school Alex graduated from but he makes a mean hot pot.

Left to Right: Alex, Leah, Juno, Tomoko, Johnny, Elizabeth, Erica

Alex lives in Park Slope, Brooklyn in kind of an interesting complex. The building used to be a hospital and it still looks like one. Meaning that the barren white hallways, sterile elevators, and high ceilings are all reminiscent of what the building was formerly used for. Only now, the place is filled with liveable apartments whose inhabitants are mostly late twenty-somethings/early thirty somethings. "Its like a dorm building for college graduates," Alex explained.

Erica made a bunch of wontons with banana and chocolate filling... to be deep fried in peanut oil. I brought some dan tat and then jokingly said that we should deep fry them too. Madness ensued. Although I have to say, as a fan of anything deep fried, dan tat in this altered state is DELICIOUS. AMEN TO THAT.

The BBG

... stands for the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens. And this is where I went today with Andrea to check out some plants and some Lunar New Year activities.

Flower Market at the BBG Visitor's Center

One gripe I always have about people explaining Chinese traditions whether on New Years or whatever Chinese holiday is that the traditions they explain are largely Cantonese. To generalize and say "all Chinese people do this or that" is sloppy. But ok, maybe this is my mind not taking into

consideration the capacity forother people to understand the difference. Anyways I say this because our botanical tour guide gave us a tour of Asian plants important at Lunar New Years (citrus ones, different flowers etc etc) and would say things like "In China, everyone loves bamboo." I really did like our tour guide, though. She had this nervous way of speaking and proclaimed that she nearly had an "out of body experience" when she saw the banana flower bloom for the first time.

I had fun looking at all the plants--it reminded me of the Conservatory of Flowers in Golden Gate Park--only bigger. Still, I have to make sure to come back to the BBG when its spring because let me tell you, naked trees get kind of tiresome.

Tropical plants

Banana and flower (not yet in bloom)

Flower coolus

Afterwards, our hungry bellies led us to some West African food at Fatima's on Franklin Ave. The standard plantains, roast chicken, some fried doughnut thing, and spaghetti with.... beef? I think? My entire meal was $3.49.

Everyone's eyes were glued to the soccer game

Afterwards, it was off to Chinatown for some good old foraging. This, of course, included a stop at Green Tea Cafe were we had two steaming cups of black sesame milk tea. Mine was sans boba.

I feel really diabetic now as I've satisfied my sugar intake for the entire 2009 lunar year.

As for other news, aside from frequently waking up to the smell of pot in the morning, my roommate officially has an alcoholism problem, despite being really grand when he's sober. I will probably not see him in a long while as he just left today to go on tour.