blackrose9's Xanga

¡Madrid!

Mon, 11 May 2009 17:20:54 GMT

I´m here in España enjoying the quaint capital city and walking my feet to the point of pain.

Sunday: I landed yesterday from New York at 6PM and immediately made my way to the Retiro Park. This park is much much larger than Central Park in New York. It was both peaceful and lively at the same time. There is even a drum circle near the statue of Alfonso right by a scenic lake with paddleboats! I had thought that the drum circle was just an impromptu gathering of young people beating drums and dancing for fun randomly, but I found out later this is a regular occurence! It also pays to have culture/history at your disposal. The US is such a relatively new country that sometimes we think a building from the 1940´s is old. Historic statues/monuments in the park abounded...fountains...even a crystal palace where they occasionally showcase artwork! I will post pictures later!

Today: Started the morning with free breakfast from the hostel! Toast and jam and milk, nothing fancy. Then, I headed to the Reina Sofia museum when I realized that the Prado is not open on Mondays. No biggie, there was plenty to see at the Reina Sofia. I think La Guernica is especially riveting to see in person. It´s ginormous, even bigger than the picture from my old Spanish class textbook! While I believe in maintaining an army and fighting for self-defense, war is still a terrible thing for all sides involved. The expressions and lines screamed of destruction and despair, all in stark black and white shades.

I finally succumbed to my shopping impulse and went crazy at Mango, the Spanish clothing chain. I didn´t search for it, just passed one on my way to the Palacio Real (Royal Palace), and had to go in! I bought shirts including one that has a purple and blue bird on the front and ruffles in a strip along the back that sort of reminds me of wings or feathers, and one with black triangular patterns and beads on a purple background. These will be replacing a shirt I brought with me that I bought in India that I just realized is WAY too sheer!

The Palacio Real is a real delight. The rooms are sumptuous, much better than any White House visit. There are perks to having a monarchy...there was even a large pharmacy on-site¨The Royal Pharmacy¨and also an armoury that had lots and lots of mounted knights on horses, all in beatifully ornate gear. Tons of religiously themed swords and shields in glass display cases. There was even childhood armor for some of the younger royalty...disturbing, but cute!

The church dedicated to Mary right by the Palace is also amazing. The ground level murals and altar level were already impressive in more of a traditional Western sense, but as your line of sight moves up towards the domed ceiling, the layers get wilder and wilder in appearance. Bright colors in interesting patterns, even firebursts or flames and five-pointed stars and blue sky at the very top. ´

I´m going to dinner now, but will definitely update with pictures soon! Earlier, I ate patatas bravas, a tapas dish that´s basically like french fries with a twist - fried potato wedges with spicy sauce. The sauce was nothing compared to Mexican spices. It was sweet and red, reminded me of the Korean spicy sauce that you get to mix in with Bimbimbap. Good stuff!

NYU

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 13:42:12 GMT

Guys, I'm moving back to New York in September and going to Saturday school at NYU for my part-time MBA. Please give me a ring if you're in town!

You can follow my progress at:

http://www.langonecrazy.blogspot.com/

hum

Wed, 14 May 2008 01:58:36 GMT

me: ahh my friend ____'s birthday is coming up
dunno what to get ____
Allison: a whoopie cushion
that smells bad
Sent at 10:53 PM on Tuesday
me: great idea

Bienvenidos

Sat, 10 May 2008 03:02:48 GMT

Hello esteemed readers of blackrose9, I welcome you back to the deep recesses of the blackrose9 mind. Hello, I am a friend of Christina's and am here to bring her blog back to life.

One question that pierces the blackrose9 is...

Would you rather be caught crying at work or farting out loud?

personality types of the candidates

Wed, 20 Feb 2008 21:53:58 GMT

http://www.slate.com/id/2184696

Wow, it looks like I have the same personality type as Obama, the guy whose candidacy I'm supporting. Could that really be true? Apparently, "Champions" aka ENFPs are rather rare. Maybe there is a reason why I was ranked in the 99th percentile in terms of Extraversion in my Negotiations class that I took at MIT. After each round of negotiations, we were ranked by the people we negotiated with on a range of attributes, and this was compiled in a giant spreadsheet at the end of the class.

Gone With The Wind

Mon, 21 Jan 2008 16:24:26 GMT

Wow. I had seen brief clips of the movie on TV, but I had never really gotten into the "Gone With The Wind" craze. Maybe it's because I grew up in a Chinese-American family and never attended a Southern debutante ball - we watched Farewell My Concubine and movies directed by Ang Lee when I was little. My family was thoroughly Catholic, too, so we watched epic movie versions of "The Ten Commandments" and “Frances of Assisi” as annual family activities as well. Heston sure was handsome!

But, I don't think we ever sat down to watch "Gone With The Wind" together. All through the years, I never saw more than brief clips of this movie on TV, and I never knew what the main storyline was, other than that there was a beautiful woman named Scarlett O'Hara, and a dashing guy who was courting her named Rhett Butler. And, I also knew there were plantations and slaves since it was set in the South, and I remember there was a big fire when a plantation was burning. That was about it.

I recently Wikipedia'd the plot, and I sat there fascinated - reading and re-reading it. Scarlett got married *how* many times and for *how* many reasons? Whose kids did she end up being pregnant with? She did *what* to her sister? She became best friends w/ Melanie, the wife/rival of her long-term crush Ashley? *What* were the details of the Union soldier that tried to assault her and *how* exactly did she and Melanie kill him, dispose of the body, act afterwards? *Who* was killed in the KKK attack that was waged in her honor? Would she and Rhett ever resolve their roller-coaster feelings for each other? Scarlett made *how* much money from her business and she even conducted business avidly while visibly pregnant? What a daring, exciting person! And...Sooooooo interesting.

I know that this is a romanticized version of events, and Scarlett as an interesting character may be very different from Scarlett as a next door neighbor or someone you have to live with in the same house. However, I've always had a place in my heart for the rebellious yet loveable woman (Anne of Green Gables, Emily/Pat in L.M. Mongomery books, female characters in The Wheel of Time, heroines in Louisa May Alcott's books, Anne McCaffrey's Crystal Singer series, Punky Brewster, the girl in King of Masks, and now Scarlett O'Hara). Deep down, I've always wished that someone like that would run for President.

Is Hillary that someone? Sigh...maybe back in her commencement speech days.

planned versus unplanned

Wed, 02 Jan 2008 06:25:08 GMT

Resolutions are nice, it's tempting to plan and make sense of such a chaotic thing as life. It's good to have goals. After all, you shouldn't try to live life aimlessly in a completely bohemian fashion. But, after examining my list of resolutions from last year, I found that a lot of meaningful things I've done this past year were never on my list of resolutions to begin with.

For one, I started volunteering with Big Brothers Big Sisters. It's been a great experience for me so far, and I hope that we can continue our Match relationship into the future. She's gone from Bs and As to straight A report cards. It's mostly her own effort, but I do think every little bit helps, as far as motivation goes.

Cooking was a hobby I picked up completely by accident. I had a starbucks gift card that I bought for myself through tax returns last year, and I really needed to get rid of it. However, I didn't want to keep carrying the card to starbucks to buy 3 dollar drinks, so I bought a 16 dollar African cookbook. I ended up LOVING that cookbook and making like 15 recipes from that thing! Then, that led to me picking up cooking in general. I went from purely African dishes to American/Continental. I had tried cooking Thai food before the African cookbook, but I never really succeeded, and the success that I had in the African cookbook gave me enough confidence to move forward and *really* start cooking.

I picked up hot yoga, purely because my friend A introduced me to it. Although I haven't gone consistently to class, it has really helped a lot in improving my balance, my joints, my spinal alignment and integrity, and my flexibility and muscle tone. Although I might lay off the hot yoga because of expenses, I should continue doing yoga on my own and start working out at the gym again. My mom signed me up for some weird aerobics class. We'll see how that goes...

Well, here's to 2008! I'm really not planning anything for you, but let's hope you're an awesome year in your own right. I hope to live life to its fullest every day.

Wednesday, January 02, 2008

Wed, 02 Jan 2008 03:19:01 GMT

New Year's Resolutions From Last Year

Relationship:

*Get heem a BOOTIFOOL gift!

Never materialized. I guess I'm just not good at getting bootiful gifts. =(

Career:

*Hmm...haven't had my end of year review yet, so can't say. Still, I think I've made progress.

Family:

*Got to capitalize on my newfound cooking skills to please the parents. Still gotta work on my communication skills.

Personal:

*No real development here, I guess this will always be a New Year's resolution that I don't fulfill.

Physical:

*Exercise twice a week.

Does twice a month count? =(

*Eat only home-cooked food except for when traveling!

Doing pretty good on this one. Not that hard when you live with your parents and have developed a hobby of cooking.

Travel:

*Go to Thailand

Looks like this is being put off by 1 more year.

*Go to Vegas/Disneyworld

I have a Disneyworld trip planned for January, but I'm not sure if I'm going yet.

Wine and Champagne and MORE Wine...

Tue, 01 Jan 2008 19:24:25 GMT

Happy New Year's, everyone! I went to a wine bar this year with my friend C. She and I felt really out of place...I guess only rich OLD folks have the financial resources and knowledge of wine to appreciate a wine bar experience. That being said, we read our wine descriptions with lots of gusto. I got a "Pinot Envy" wine flight with 3 different kinds of Pinot Noir, while C got a "White Wine" flight with 3 different kinds of white wine, including 2 Rieslings. I should have gotten white wine too - what was I thinking, I got seafood for dinner! Oh well, 6 ounces total of red wine didn't kill me, and I think red is a more festive color.

Lindauer champagne was pretty good, I had the typical Moet and Chandon White Star when I got home. I also tried some Spanish pink sparkling wine and Raspberry dessert wine that tasted like syrup. I am saving the late harvest German Riesling I bought for another occasion - maybe for cooking!

I've gotten into the habit of dropping one raspberry into every glass of champagne, sparkling wine. or even plain white wine that I drink. You should try it, too! It makes a very pretty fizz, and tastes scrumptious - waiting for you, at the bottom of your glass.

Merry Xmas Everyone!

Wed, 26 Dec 2007 03:33:19 GMT

This year, we had a quiet Christmas. I just hung out with family, cousin & cousin's roommate, parents. Gift exchanging is so much fun! I always get my presents in unwrapped form...maybe that is really Asian of my parents. I try to wrap gifts, but I'm horrible at it and my handwriting on cards is terrible.

Cousin: "Did you write this card in the car?"

Me: "Umm..no...I wrote it in my room...which is just as cramped as a car bc it's messy...you got me there!"

Cousin's Roommate: "Wow, you guys can read each other's minds, it must be in the family blood!"

How embarrassing!

My other first cousin in Taiwan, who is older, married, and has a baby, has a hobby of going to get glamour shots. Her kid is no exception to the rule. Check out this one, my favorite! The tiger is supposedly his favorite toy, and he's pointing at it in this pic.