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Experiment 2: Strengths Finder 2.0
A New York Moment
Thursday, September 02, 2004
Talk about random meetings – sometimes it gets to be a little ridiculous.
So as I mentioned before, New York is the kind of place where you happen to meet unexpected people. Sometimes they’re people from your past, sometimes they are people who loosely associated to you, and sometimes it just bizarre chance meetings that end up being very very helpful.
As I mentioned, I met Becky on the very first day I came to NYC. Recently I visited her in her apartment. She has 2 other roommates but I had never met either of them, though I did see the silhouette of one as she ran from her room to the bathroom and back again. In any case, later that evening, I went to a Bible study for the Emmanuel Presbyterian Church in the upper west side. The people there were so great! So sincere and so earnest. I really liked them. I’ll probably become a regular at their group study.
At the end of the study, we were all just hanging out and being social. This one woman, Audrey, looked so familiar. I mentioned this to her and she said the same thing of me. Then the question of “where do you live?” came up. “108th and Columbus,” I said. She looked at me and said, “I live on 108th and Manhattan.” Columbus and Manhattan are parallel and run on either side of my apartment. Then the address came up. It was the same. “What unit do you live in?” “5C.” 5C is Becky’s apartment! I gasped, “I was in your apartment this morning! Was that YOU stumbling from your room to the bathroom?” “That was you visiting Becky?” Audrey was just as shocked as I was. Nooooo way! I remember her because Becky had mentioned that Audrey always brings over her song service group to practice, unannounced, on some nights. It all made sense when i put 2 and 2 together and eventually, after much manipulation, got 4.
So now I have an activity partner who lives in the same building. There is another girl, Susanna who also lives in the same building. God’s really taking care of me. 
Transformer - the real break dancers of the universe
Friday, August 27, 2004
I would sell my left kidney to be able to dance like these inhuman conglomerates of metal and rhythm.
Stephan sent me this link and i think it’s definitely worth posting. Seriously, who knew that robots were that agile? Now i have nothing over androids.
Anyway, check out this link and say thanks to Stephan for sending it my way.
I would be selected against
Tuesday, August 24, 2004
If Darwin could have it his way, I think I would have exited the human race already.
Let’s imagine a world where there were no restaurants or fast food joints. What if there were no frozen foods or microwavable meals? What if we were forced to cook for ourselves at every meal?!? I think I would die. I mean, literally. So it’s been a little over a week of me trying to fend for myself now. Let me say, the culinary experience has been found severely lacking when I cook for myself. It was so much easier when Kimi was around. Even if we didn’t know how to make stuff, we’d just make it up! Now, I can’t exactly do that. It seems I lack a second opinion or the stress of a bunch of people coming over in about 20 minutest to force me to make a decision about whether oregano *really* goes into that or not.
I just don’t have the budget to experiment. I miss Cardenas market so much! For less than a dollar, I could get at least a goodly amount of 3 different types of produce. Here? I can’t even buy one produce item for less than $4! Cardenas! I miiissssss yoouuuuu!
BUT today was a little different. I actually cooked something that was healthy AND good. Well, actually, “cook” is a strong word for what transpired in my kitchen. How about “assembled?” Maybe that’s more accurate. Anyway, I had a good square meal! Vegetables, fruit and meat! Yay! If I could only do this every day…
I also went out and bought some kind of ground beef. I really hope I didn’t get the sucky parts of the cow (wherever that may be…). Anyway, I remember the tales that Max and Vince used to tell me of their days at UNC, cooking for themselves every night. They would get their lump of ground beef and make ultra thin patties divided by wax paper and then stick the whole lot into the freezer. This enabled them to grab individual, easily thaw-able portions of ground beef on the fly. Genius! It’s very similar to the rice freezing trick I learned from Yasuyo.
So to all those people who ever taught me anything about cooking, the one’s for you! Because of you, I will NOT be selected against! …Or at least it’ll take longer for it to get to me.
Church Hopping (even though I’ve found my church)
Sunday, August 22, 2004
I’ve discovered that, at least for now, church hopping is my form of being social.
Almost all the people I’ve met here so far are church goer. They’re not necessarily SDA, and so they have lots of options when it comes to which church they want to attend. As for me, I’ve got my church – it’s the SDA church called Advent Hope. I’ve been there once, but I think I’ve already joined the choir. I’m pretty excited about that.
In any case, I checked out this Bible study for the church Redeemer which is apparently really big and wonderful. Their pastor is famous and preaches very well. He, however, is gone til September, so I won’t be heading there until he is back.
Today, I went with Joe, Jen, and Norm to Times Square Church (TSC). Now that is a church. It meets at a theater and packs in about 8000 people. There are annexes just to house those who can’t actually obtain a seat. I’ve included a picture of the stage so you can get an idea of what it was like.
The choir was huge, their voices were wonderful, and the place was buzzing with energy! Everyone was into it, clapping, swaying, singing. The word “vibrant” comes to mind. The pastor, who I suppose is also famous, was David Wilkerson. He had a powerful talk about not compromising the Bible principles just because we’re afraid of offending someone. “Don’t spread a watered-down Gospel!” he boomed. I really appreciated his message. It’s funny because he used the same verse that the Redeemer Bible study group discussed on Friday night (Gal. 2:11-14).
In any case, after the service, the newcomers were herded into a smaller room where we were greeted by the church’s Hospitality Team who fed us refreshments, small talked, and prayed with us. I asked them how one finds one’s niche in such a large church. Hilory, our Hospitality Team member told us that we could join a ministry, but that one could not join until we had been attending church for about 6 months. I later found out more details from Jen who goes to TSC regularly. Not only must you wait for 6 months, but you also have to apply to be a part of a ministry team. That involves a filled form and an interview to see if you are fit to serve. THEN you can begin to find your niche. I have no idea what happens if they find that you are NOT fit to serve.
I really had beef with that concept, and I think I might have laid into Jen a little much considering I just met her this morning. :S I think she might have been offended. But really, come one, you have to QUALIFY to serve God? Gimme a break! So needless to say, if I want a high energy, Broadway-production-like service, I’ll go there, but for actual fellowship, I’m glad I have my small cozy church.
The Random Connection City – an introduction to the people I’ve met here
If you’re going to live in NYC, it seems that you have to be fluid with meeting just about anyone.
Over the past week, i have been meeting and greeting with people that I would normally consider strangers, but when you’re in this city, suddenly, you’re considered friends. It’s a great thing! It’s strange because my normally shy/hesitant nature about meeting new people has to be crushed and replaced with a strong, confident person who can go out and meet people without fear of rejection or judgment. I think the people i’ve met so far have really been instrumental in helping that side come out.
On the first day here, i met Becky - an teacher who goes to Bank Street College. She’s great! Not only did she show me around the block to all the useful locations and great cafes, she took me out with her and her friends to a concert and has continued to invite me to events. Her friend group consists of people that she met from various random circles - people she met on at concerts, school, online dating, through friends, etc. She is so friendly and open with all she meets that it’s easy to see why she can make friends with almost anyone. She mentioned that you’ll see people that you haven’t seen for years from all walks of life pop up in the subways. And you know what? It’s totally true! The day after she said that, I saw Michelle N. (Doug’s sister) in the subway going uptown! I didn’t even believe it was her! I dumbly stared and that was it. I heard later that she was up visiting Derek in the Bronx.
Then Grace, the girlfriend of Keith, Max’s cow-orker, came out to NY to visit for a week (she came out the same day that i did). She is incredibly connected here! She invited me to go out with all her friends one Tuesday night to Lombardi’s Pizza. I met all of her friends, including a bunch of people who just moved to the area like Mellanie and Joe. Mellanie just got a job working for the city in the department of budgeting or something like that and Joe is a stats/finance grad student at NYU. Joe is also one of Slim’s good friends and previous roommate. And if you don’t know who Slim is, he’s another one of Max’s cow-orkers and good friends of Keith and Grace mentioned above. There were more people at dinner, but i don’t know as much about them except that they were all up in the Bay Area like Stanford or Berkeley.
Through Mellanie, I went to a Bible study that is based out of a big church out here called Redeemer. I haven’t been there yet, but everyone says it’s great. So at the Bible study, i meet Hai-Yun (sp?) and a bunch of guys that sound like the apostles altogether (John, Paul, Mark, Neil, Jim, and Kevin).
On Sabbath, I went to Advent Hope, the SDA church out here. Brian L. picked me up in his car (a CAR!!) and drove me to church. It’s a good thing too because it started pouring like crazy after church. Through him, I met a whole bunch of great people. The ones that stick out in my mind right now are the ones that I ate potluck with: Nathan, Erica & Jeremy, and Jennifer. Apparently Erica is related to Laura in Nebraska through Patty C. Strange how small the world is. But it gets even smaller. Later that night, Brian, Maile, Young Joo and I met up with Erica & Jeremy for gelato. There was another couple with them: Dana and George. Dana looked SO familiar! We eyed each other for a little bit and finally she asked if any of us had gone to LLA. That’s when we realized the connection. It turns out that Dana was on my yearbook staff the year I was editor. Man, I’m losing my memory already!
Today, I went to Times Square Church with Joe and met up with his friends Jen or Jin (I couldn’t quite tell) and Norm. Norm is also going to NYU for business school. Jen is in school for music theory.
My conclusion is that NYC is basically a city of motley crews gathered from the four corners of the earth. It’s been fun, but I’m getting sort of worn out meeting all these new people. I have faith, though, that God is leading me to the people and spiritual allies who I need to meet. So for this has been an adventure, and I can’t wait to meet the people in my program! I just hope I can keep up the energy.
My First Pair of New York Shoes!
Friday, August 20, 2004
I felt it my duty as a “real” New Yorker (ala Sarah Jessica Parker’s character on Sex & the City) to buy a pair of expensive shoes!
Yesterday, Joe and I went to the Barney’s Warehouse sale. It was a mad house in the women’s deparment. The aisles were strewn with the torn remains of bargain items while piles of rejected pieces litted the floor. Women snarled at each other in primal rage over the bargain bin. The prices ranged from about $125 and up. In other words, i didn’t really shop that much. Then we headed downstairs to the mens stuff.
Surprisingly, the guys section was much more robust. Lines of suit coats and pants, sport coats and outerwear stood in organized racks in the basement. Not only was it in better shape, ther was so much more of it than the women’s section! That’s the first time i’ve seen more of a selection for men than women!
In any case, while Joe was plundering the guys section, I went to look for black shoes. Wouldn’t you know it? They only had one pair of closed-toe black shoes in the 8.5 section. So I bought them! Hehehe I really don’t like shoe shopping, so i’ll do anything to get it done quickly. They were originally $220, but i got them for $50. Not bad, i think. I felt like a real New Yorker all of a sudden - buying exorbitantly priced (but nicely discounted) footwear. They ain’t no Manolos, but hey, it’s a start!
What do you think of t hem?
