Aspen, Maroon Bells, Meditation, Puppy, Painting

Hey beautiful homies! Hope all is going well with you. It's been a while since I contributed so here we go.....

Yesterday I went on a trip just outside of Aspen, Colorado to see the Maroon Bells (photo on the top right). This place is suppose to be the most photographed place in Colorado. Unfortunately I got there to late and the lake had dried out and their were only a few aspens, but it was still so beautiful. In full bloom at the end of September the photo shows what it would look like! One of the top 3 most beautiful things I would have ever seen no doubt!!! It was still beautiful at this time of year without the aspens and the lake.

I just could not get myself into Yoga so I made a goal to explore meditation for the next year. I have started to do a daily meditation practice. I found an awesome one on YouTube called meditation for beginners part 1,2,3. The guy who leads the meditation is so calm and soothing! After meditation I listen to this amazing religious singer named Krishna Das. He's an American singer who does Indian Kirtan style devotional chants. Meditation and Krishna Das have really helped me feel peace, joy, and love inside my body. Also, have increased my love for other people.

Again, decided Dont want children, dont want a husband, dont want a boyfriend, and dont want a dog....all to much responsibility and I have way to many places to go and things to do. But if at some point in my life I go weak in the knees and break I think I want to indulge in a cocker spanial!


Also gotten into painting a bit lately! My computer is broken but once I can download photos I'll show you! I love doing flowers! Its so relaxing to just paint while listening to "1,000 albums to listen to before you die" by using pandora.com.

Butter Bombs

I call these Oatmeal Butter Bomb Cookies. Guaranteed 20000 calories in each one!

I'm going to offload a bunch on Miguel and Mark tonight when they come over to watch The Office

All started when I bought Quaker Oatmeal when I first moved here. When I discovered a local store that carried Bob's Red Mill Oatmeal however.. it was over. What was I going to do with the bin of Quaker Oats? Make oatmeal cookies of course! This was a bad bad idea and I'm now looking to get rid of them as soon as I can.

A Useless Update

I think I ate too much cereal.

Take me on a trip I'd like to go someday.. take me to New York I'd love to see L.A......

Brooklyn Book Festival

Pretty soon the weather will be cold as crap and I will not be a happy camper. But until then, might as well take advantage of the sunshine before it disappears and stays in California.

Last week I hauled my ass to the Brooklyn Book Festival at the Brooklyn Borough Hall and Plaza, also where the Brooklyn Public Library is (left). Booths and booths of book publishers lined the plaza and aside from it being a ridiculously humid/hot day, the turnout was enormous. Storytellers, poets, columnists, and authors gave readings and interviews (what the people on the stairs are watching) and there were over 70 other small programs-- for example:

10:15 a.m. Verbal Catalysts- Urban Word NYC's top teen poets present individual and group poems fresh off their success at the National Teen Poetry Slam in Washington D.C.

or 1:00 p.m. Out of Place- 3 writers on the exciting, disconcerting, and sometimes dangerous experience of being out of place. Featuring David Rakoff, Moustafa Bayoumi, and Rivka Galchen.

At the National Book Foundation booth, one book, "All I Did was Ask" by Terry Gross caught my eye. "It's free," the guy said.
"Sweeeeeet."

United Nations Panel Discussion

On Thursday I had the opportunity to go to the U.N. and watch a panel discussion called "Green Business is Good Business," a discussion put on by the U.S. Mission to the U.N.

I also had a bomb-ass chicken gyro at one of New York's many Halal food stands before I went. Yumm..
Anyway, I'm not going to bore you with the details (even though I did take copious notes) so I'll just say that the whole thing centered around mainly two topics: 1) What are corporations today doing to reduce their carbon footprint and other environmental impacts and 2) What technologies are emerging to help solve the problem of diminishing natural resources?

It was moderated by Brian Dumaine (editorial director of small business in Fortune Magazine) and comprised of Tod Arbogast (Dell's Director of Sustainability), Michael Moran (VP of Goldman Sach's Global Market Institute), Glenn Prickett (Senior VP pf the NGP Conservation International), and Andrew Winston (co-author of Green to Gold). All white men.

All in all, really enjoyed the discussion even though I felt the answers most of them gave were far too general and didn't take into consideration the other 500 million difficulties of obtaining greener supply chains and products.

Film: Yang Ban Xi

Wednesday I went to one of the Asia Society's film events--this time around they're films made about China's cultural revolution. The one I saw was called Yang Ban Xi: The 8 Model Works--basically a film about the campy communist propaganda musicals made in the 1960s which were directed by Mao's wife, Jiang Qing. Traditional Chinese opera was banned because there were far too many capitalist (black) elements-- too many themes privileging the rich, landowning class and not enough praise for the workers, the farmers, and the soldiers. So these popular musicals became the only form of theatrical/filmic entertainment for some years. Really really interesting film.

The Guggenheim and The German American Steuben Parade of NYC

I decided to take advantage of my nifty museum pass yesterday and so went to the Solomon R. Guggenheim museum in the Upper East Side. It was originally called "The Museum of Non-Objective Painting," and aimed to showcase avant-garde art by early modernists. (I just can't escape avant garde no matter where I go) From the street, the building looks like a "white ribbon, curled into a cylindrical stack." The building was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in the 1940s who claimed that his museum would make the nearby Metropolitan Museum of Art look like a "Protestant barn."
They had a pretty cool Louise Bourgeois exhibit -- a French sculptor, tapestry maker, and avant garde artist who, in a word, was nuts. She had these exhibits called "Cells" which were supposed to be glimpses into her childhood memory from France (unsurprisingly she had a disturbing and traumatic childhood). They were literally wooden doors propped up to encircle a "room" in which she hung old night dresses and undergarments on real pieces of bone among other objects like babies being suffocated by orbs and nonrepresentational objects that look like both phalluses and breasts. Pretty sweet.

Outside on 5th avenue, the party was just getting started with the Steuben Parade of NYC. I have never seen so many German Americans in my life, much less so much German flag waving. There was even a Miss German American competition. The procession was lively and wound its way to Central park. Police blocked off all side streets leading up to 5th. Apparently its quite a big thing. Reminds me of when I met Chris in Germany and I learned all of 2 German words: "excuse me" and "thank you." Quite useful. These old coots to the right are singing some German song about the Rhineland. They were pretty jolly.

I thought this picture (left) was just funny.

Clubbing in Soho: Club 205 and The White Rabbit

New Yorkers start partying late. And by late, I mean meet up time is 12:00-12:30. There is also no end time. Last time when I went clubbing at Stay I didn't get home until 4:30. This time was much the same. I think California should close bars/clubs at 3:00 instead of 2:00. It would make everyone happier.

So we (Van and I) met up with some old Berkeley alum (one or two of which Van knew in college) and we headed down to Soho for some good old fashioned fun. Everyone was super nice and super down to earth. Miguel, featured here, is a photographer who works at the International Photography Center. He also has on a spiffy vest.

Behind him is Mohan, who's working at his cousin's club, Drom, doing event planning and such. There were also a few other people there but I'm lazy and don't feel like describing them. The cool thing is that a lot of them live in Bushwick (yay Bushwick!) so we'll probably be seeing more of them in the future.

Club 205 felt like it was going to burst at the seams because all that techno/house music was seriously hardcore. Although the decor was pretty fantastic-- there was basically literature (poems, quotes, book passages, love advice etc) written all over the walls-- the music after a while was not. So we headed to The White Rabbit, a club that was owned by the cousin of one of the other guys in our group. There, the music was so much better-- hip hop, reggaeton, pop, and dance. I sincerely missed Zowie when they played Paper Planes.

I got the worst come ons last night. The best one: "Hey.... I really like your glasses..."

You can't see in the picture but I am wearing my new shiny red shoes!!

Arrived home exhausted but had a great time.

Exploration in NYC

So I'm beginning to really warm up to the city though I swear my sense of hearing (which wasn't that great to begin with) has probably deteriorated due to the constant loud noises in the subway, downtown... basically everywhere. This is my house, well rather, its where I live. All the houses/apartments are crammed pretty closely together even though around my neighborhood there are lots of industrial warehouses, and condemned buildings and the like. But this picture looks pretty quaint yeah? I especially like the white fence around it. Its like one extra layer of protection before the 1,2, 3 more doors you have to go through to get inside. This is me and my unmade bed in my new room! Its quite a bare room (I refuse to decorate it given my temporary stay here).

So the weather has been crazy. First its hot and humid, then its rainy and humid, then its cold and rainy, then its really sweltering hot again. Well, last Sunday while Van parked himself on the couch all day (and I literally mean ALL DAY) watching football, I decided to take advantage of the sunshine and go to Central Park. I wish I had brought something to read-- I'm pretty sure that I lost my book at the airport-- because it would have been PERFECT to park myself somewhere under a tree and read to my hearts content. Nonetheless it was gorgeous. See for yourself:


People were rowing boats, reading, playing frisbee, soccer, just havin' fun in the sun. Afterwards, I went to the American Museum of Natural History and saw exhibits titled Asian Peoples, African Peoples etc. Highly un-PC and highly inappropriate. They did have a cool evolution of man exhbit though. At the end of the day, I took a stroll along Columbus Ave, sorta like a really long North Berkeley but the only difference is that not everything is organic, whole grain, and all that. Just expensive.

A couple days later I received a super cool package at my doorstep. Intrigued, I tore open the wrapping to find:
A box of bluberry muffin flavored wheat cereal!! Starving, I immediately had myself a bowl while watching Bill O'Reilly relentlessly badger a poor professor from American University about Sarah Palin. "You should be setting a better example for your students" was basically the outcome of the whole thing. Ridiculous. Anyway, the package was from Daniel Stringer, my partner from Greenlining and he left a really sweet note too. It says: Hey Ariane, Though I'd send these as a housewarming gift. I haven't actually tried them (all the one's at my house were gone when I got home, but they look good). Anyway, hope these have a good trip to NYC, just as I hope you had a good trip to NYC. Now, for those of you who've had the good fortune to meet Daniel Stringer, he is probably the most thoughtful human being ever. Totally made my day.

A few days ago, I also made it out to story slam event hosted by the MOTH storytelling group out in Lower East Side at the Nuyorican Poet's Cafe. The stories were kick-ass. You just had to be there. Crowded as hell, but so so so good.
The guy who won the competition was a huge guy who told a story of how he used trickery and sleaziness to get a girl and finally marry her. Doesn't sound all that exciting in a summary but his deliveries were fantastic. And, well if you don't know already I had quite an adventure that night too. Probably should be more careful in the future but it involved me meeting someone who took me on a motorcycle tour all through manhattan, across the brooklyn bridge, and back home. Hella tight.

And finally, work! Isn't that what I came here to do? Well I'm working as an intern for the Asia Society in the Asian Social Issues Program (ASIP) where I research water sustainability issues in developing Asian nations. I get a United Nations security pass so I can attend meetings there whenever I want (sweet!) and a pass that gets me into any museum in the world for free (Even the Louvre!). I'm also getting paid to do part time work for the Center for U.S.-China Relations, also a dept of the Asia Society headed by former Dean of the School of Journalism at UC Berkeley, Orville Schell. Oh, the place where I work is also a museum, a pretty prestigious one at that, and right now we're exhibiting pieces from the cultural revolution. So that's why there's a huge banner of Mao on the side of our building.

Bushwick< Brooklyn < New York City

So tomorrow I will have been officially here in New York City for a whole entire week! I'm sorry to disappoint but I have no crazy stories to tell yet mainly because I've been settling in, hauling in furniture, getting internet/cable set-up, and buying the living essentials.

I live on 339 Covert Street in Brooklyn, New York in a bottom floor of a super cute house which is 1) cleaner/bigger than any Berkeley apartment I've ever seen or been in and
2) did I mention super cute?
The kitchen space is pretty sizeable and all the kitchen drawers have been newly installed with little strawberry symbols on the knobs. Plus we got a kickass comfy couch for free from Van's uncle and we're getting a foozball table next week!

So please visit!

Craiglist is also really and truly the modern day savior. We got a good quality coffee table, side table, DVD player, floor lamp, desk clock, writing desk, decorative lamp, folding chair, and plates all for $40. That my friends is DIRT CHEAP. Ikea can suck my dick.

Last night Van and I went down to Coyote Ugly in East Village, (yes the original Coyote Ugly bar) and witnessed what can be described as skimpily clad women bartenders line dancing and going the splits on the bar while pouring tequila down skeezy male patrons' throats. The place was decorated with bras (must have been at least 500+) on the ceilings, on the windows.. wherever. My rating: 7 for amusement, 3 for having an actually good atmosphere. Not surprisingly most of the clientele were horndogs. Yuck!

Leaving the place was in a word--insane. There was a downpour like I had never seen before and when it rains, it really does pour. Luckily I was OCD about checking weather.com and had packed my nifty umbrella in my purse but that didn't help the least. Walking back to the subway at 2AM, Van and I were drenched to the bone. Actually to the point where we didn't give a fuck anymore and I almost had a "singing in the rain" moment before I caught myself and saved my dignity. The great thing was that it wasn't cold at all, not like Bay Area rain, just humid and wet.

New Job!

Hey Girls!

How are ya doin? Laura I hope your school is okay. Ms. Wu I am so proud of you for moving out to NY on your own! That takes a lot of courage. I hope your having fun exploring the different neighborhoods. I'm sure there are so many exciting job opportunities over there as well. After all it IS New York!

Just wanted to let you know I got a job that I am pretty happy with! The whole process was a bit emotional. This is because I found a job at this great restaurant called the Med then decided to jump ship after 2 days and was left again without a job and rent just a week around the corner! At first everyone wanted to hire me and then when I started the job search again it seemed like every resteraunt in Boulder no longer needed more servers!

neway, I finally found a great job at a family restaurant in Boulder called Lucile's. It's the cutest thing you have ever seen. It has won best breakfast in Boulder for the past 25 years. I personally love it b/c it's a locals hot spot so it really gives me a feel for Boulder and its people. The manager and staff are really friendly. I will be working there 4 mornings a week from 7am-3:30pm. Yup, I shall be gettin up before the sun. But then again not workin 3 days a week so I get some awesome play time in on my days off!! I'm hoping to have fun with my roomies, raft, try to snowboard, hike, eat at yummy restaurants, read, meditate, spin, volunteer...you know do fun stuff on those free days. one thing me and my roomates have been brainstorming is to get together a street performance in downtown boulder on Pearl which is the main street. My roomate is going to do backflips while I juggle a soccer ball. We are going to have a limbo and hulla hoop contest with this other weird game. Its gonna be awesome!

You guys have got to see downtown boulder on a friday night. It is almost eerie how much it resembles pleasantville or a weird utopia community complete with amazing musicians (pianists, violinists, celtic musicians, guitar players), lots of fun street performers, flowers everywhere, pretty people of all ages dancing/singing/smiling/walking about, every kind of cute restaurant you could imagine where everything is organic and healthy, no cars are allowed on the street, beautiful cafe's...

I have definitely realized I need to get out of the restaurant business. Thus, I've been looking at Clinical Psych Phd programs in Colorado. Also, I'm hoping to join a gym and start learning how to become a spin and yoga/meditation instructor and personal trainer. I may also apply for a teach for america high school english teaching position in Denver we'll see. Or I could also end up joining a bhuddhist work study program at the Nyigma institute in Sanoma. So many options!!

I'm always thinking of you guys, miss you, and hope your adventures are treatn ya well :)