Down Under Day 1

Hello people (Dad and Mackenzie), this is Alisa blogging from Australia. I'm back at my hostel, which is so fancy and nice, thinking that 7:30 is a little too early to go to bed no matter how tired I am. Therefore, I will recount the excitement of the day (which started on Sunday at 3:30 PM--it's now Tuesday at 7:30 PM). Also, I didn't bring my little thing that gets the pictures of my camera so now is the time to dust off that old imagination and work with me here.

Yes, it has been a long day. A long day of sitting. I left SFO on Sunday. I hate HATE airports. I've always had rather bad flying/air travel luck to the extent that I am on the TSA watch list for my terrorist tendancies. Plus, the airport is so boring. I'm not fancy with billions of miles so I have to gold member suite to chill out in. I'm forced to mingle with the commoners in uncomfortable chairs. Well, my flight was an international flight sort of. I was flying to LAX then on to Melbourne. They say to be there at two hours early for international flights because of customs and what not. Well, I followed this advice and sat at the airport for two hours bored to death. I played solitaire and wore out the battery on my phone.

After my first Virgin America flight I have come to two conclusions. #1: I am not "hip" enough to hang with Richard Branson. #2 I saw nothing that made it better than any other airline, why do they charge so much?

Luckily my winning smile got me a free upgrade to an exit row (wouldn't have minded first class, but I enjoyed the leg room for my giant long legs) for the 15 hour+ flight to Melbourne. I took some Tylenol PM and put in a movie. I think I slept for about 3 hours, not bad! At one point in the night, while I wasn't sleeping, one of the flight attendants (who was a huge meat head with his shirt barely containing his arm muscle bulge in a gross way) reached across me to close the window and then turned off my tv. My eyes were open the whole time and I just looked at him with this confused expression. Then he asked if I was watching that....um, yes, seriously, what else would I be doing? The flight was fairly anti-climatic. However, I did request the vegetarian meal when I booked the flight. This means that you get your meal before everyone else because they deliver the special meals first. It was great. The poor schmucks sitting next to me had to wait forever to get both of their meals while I happily ate mine in front of them. Plus, they were really good. (well, mostly good). Must remember this though.

Now, I'm here in Australia. It is summer time. The weather in NYC right now is 21 degrees farenheit. The weather here is like 60 degrees or something celsius (I have no idea but it is hot and there is no snow on the ground!)

I made it through customs, bought an Australian cell phone, got some Australian cash and jumped in my rental car. In case you didn't know, the driver's seat is on the wrong side of the car because they drive on the wrong side of the road. This is a HUGE adjustment and require a lot of mental repetition: left side, left side, left side. It is especially problematic when turning onto a new road because I get so confused. Fortunately, I quickly drove out of the city into the sticks and haven't had to deal with traffic which would cause me more confusion I'm sure. I fully plan on being an expert on left side of the road driving before heading back to Melbourne. I was also fortunate to have a reminder from the man checking me out of the rental car place that the blinker was where the windshield wipers would be (everything is backwards except the pedals).

Things I have seen today:
Kangaroos jumping across the road: 0 (but I really want that to happen)
Road kill that possibly could have been a kangaroo: 1
A car coming up the wrong side of the street toward me while I was on the left side (correct) of the road: 1
Eucalyptus trees: about a million
Eucalyptus trees with koala bears in them: 0 (I'm beginning to think that Australia doesn't have cool animals like everyone has been telling us for years)

Happy Christmas Dad

It has been brought to my attention every Sunday evening for the past 10 months or so that my blog needs to be updated. It is brought to my attention by my dad who does not like the flickr representation of his trip to New York City. I therefore decided that the best Christmas gift I could give the man who has it all would be a new blog post.



So, here you go dad. This is a recent picture of me and you are no longer the last post. Have a very happy Christmas!

Mom and Dad Came to Visit

You read that correctly. My parents came to New York to visit their favorite daughter. It was fantastic. Now, since the batteries in my camera recently died back in November, I was unable to take any pictures. However, you have no need to fear. With the help of flickr, I will be able to photographically represent their entire trip.

First my parents:
Mom:

Dad:


They flew in early Thursday morning. That night we ate delicious Italian food (even though they were out of salmon) and saw Lauren Graham and Oliver Platt in "Guys and Dolls."


Friday, mom and I got facials:


Dad met up with us and we got pizza and went to Rice to Riches (so delicious). Dad had spent the day walking back and forth from Times Square to Grand Central just to get us tickets to see "In the Heights." Sorry I didn't teach you about the "shuttle" beforehand.


Saturday we had brunch at Alice's Tea Cup (a place that I'm pretty sure my mom wishes she was at with all of her granddaughters) and then took a nap before having a delicious Valentine's Dinner at Jane.


We went to church on Sunday and then had a delicious tuna fish sandwich at Union Square Cafe for lunch. We sat at the bar and were served by a Brigham look-alike. He even gave me free cookies, I'm a fan!


Monday we went to the Guggenheim and then to Gramercy Tavern for dinner. It was delicious (the restaurant more so than the Gugg). Tuesday I had to abandon them in order to go to school but we met up for lunch and cupcakes before I sent them on their way. Thanks for coming to visit mom and dad. I had a blast!

It Kind of Fits Into a Theme

Last Wednesday I realized that it was Ash Wednesday (it helped that there were lots of people that had remembered and had gone to mass thus allowing me to remember) and got excited about Lent. Although I am not a Catholic, I do enjoy "giving something up" for lent. Plus, it fits the theme of my life this year--better myself (yes, quite impossible, I know).

Anyway, the difficult part is determining what to give up. For instance, one year it was boys--this was more out of coincidence than self-control, but who's keeping track? Well, this year I wanted to challenge myself even more, so I decided that this year for lent I would give up not blogging. Meaning, I'm going to blog during lent. Now I've left this loosely defined because I don't want to over commit myself and then be disappointed. I always succeed at my lent goals. I figure if I just get one post in during these 40 days, I'm good. For all of your sakes, let's hope I do more though. (Basically I mean dad's sake since I'm pretty sure he's the only one who still checks this thing).

Happy Lent!

The Goal Setting Continues

It's important to set goals for yourself and then measure your performance against those goals. Is this not how we grow?

I had a goal to be in bed by 11. It's 11:29. In order to be in bed by 11, I had to complete all of my homework and write my Leadership report. I have two sentences done on the Leadership report and none of my corporate finance read. Luckily, the report is only a page, and I think I'm far enough in the corporate finance chapter that he won't lecture past what I've read tomorrow; therefore, I should make it to bed before midnightish. All I want in life is to go to bed before 3 AM just one night. Just one. I feel the waking up at 7 won't be as painful then.

That is all...I set goals....I fail....The recession sucks!

(yes, I did just blame my inability to achieve goals on the recession. no, it isn't logical. don't worry about it.)

A Whole New Year

I've never been a big New Year's Resolution maker...so why should this year be different? Yes, I'm "goal-oriented" (or so I've told everyone I've interviewed with lately), but I don't think I should only make goals at the beginning of each year.

So, as this year began, I decided that I should better myself and the world. The plan was to give up red meat. I had heard how producing one pound of red meat wasted some insane amount of water. Growing up in a desert, I've always found myself sensitive to water conservation. There's also the methane gas situation. And finally, it's not all that good for you. Since I don't typically eat a lot of red meat anyway, I thought this would be a great to help out the environment. In fact, I soon imagined myself turning into a vegetarian and liking it. (I have no idea what drugs I was on when imagining this--I love meat and can't imagine myself as a vegetarian although nothing is wrong with those of you who are)

I think I lasted a week before I was forced with my first challenge: restaurant week and the friends got reservations at a steak house. Seriously? I professed that I don't eat red meat and tried to leave it at that. The peer pressure. The internal desire for a giant juicy steak. In the end, success. I was able to pawn my spot in the reservation off of on someone else to eliminate the temptation.

The next day, while walking home from school barely breathing due to the freezing cold temperature and bitter wind, I ducked into my favorite coffee shop. Daily special: angus beef chili pot pie with corn bread. Comfort food like that on a freezing cold day when I'm hungry meant there was really no other option. It was delicious!

The next day I went to bake with my friend Stephanie...made a delicious dulce de leche bread pudding with chocolate chunks....she made me dinner. I love home made, non-take out food. Spaghetti with buffalo. More red meat.

These two set backs only made me more determined to pursue my new non-red meat lifestyle.

It didn't last long. My friend Carrie came into town today and took me to dinner, a steak house. Yes, I could have had fish or chicken or pork or lamb or veggies...but no, I had a steak. It was good. Not delicious though. So, it's back on. I don't eat red meat so stop trying to make me!!

Sometimes New York is Cool

Today after taking a horrible accounting midterm and then going to a wildly amusing statistics review session, I walked by this guy on the street.



There I was walking home from school, thinking of how much I don't want to study statistics only to look up and see Mr. James Franco. Before you all ask, no, I didn't pretend to trip and fall or do anything else to get his attention. I didn't even make eye contact. I looked up, watched him walk past me and then looked away. In hindsight, I wish I would have quoted Freaks and Geeks to him or said, "Hi, I know Vicky. You went to high school with her." As quick and clever as I am, none of this came to me when I saw him today. However, next time I am prepared. And yes, there will be a next time.

According to the Fresh Air interview, he goes to NYU Tisch to study directing--which is right next to my school--and Columbia to study writing and some other community school here in NY to study something else. Three schools! Can you believe it? Plus, he just got nominated for a Golden Globe and has been promoting his new film Milk. How on earth does he do it all? I thought I was busy. That's not all either. As a public service, he teaches acting classes online. Check it out, I know I sure will.

And for the record, I am not obsessed with James Franco. Reason #1: He was just a much cooler star sighting than my neighbor, Katie Holmes. Reason #2: I really didn't want to study statistics today and found myself doing some web-based research. Reason #3: And finally, I'm white, I have to listen to NPR.

To Whom It Might Also Concern

Dears Bars, Pubs and Food Establishments of the Northeastern Seaboard:

When a patron asks for a Coca Cola Classic, that patron actually wants a Coca Cola Classic. If you only have Pepsi, do not assume that the patron is indifferent. The patron is tired of accidentally having a sip of that nasty stuff when really wanting a Coca Cola Classic. Simply inform that patron that you have Pepsi products, and then the patron can order a water with lemon.

There is a difference, and yes, I can tell!

Kind Regards,
alisa