(one of those schedule/list posts)
DC. this was an amazing opportunity to see some (but not all) of the faces that i've missed most dearly since taking leave of Duke in May.
I was actually lucky in that 2 of my favorite friends came up to the NJ/NY area in that time between graduation and my leaving for korea. but since then and more importantly since before graduation, i'd been missing face time with some of my nearest and dearest from college.
i rode a train in AMERICA for the first time ever. i've been on trains in europe and asia but never at home. i guess i just always drove short distances and flew longer ones. but anyway, i took the amtrak and it went to philadelphia! i've never been there! maybe i should've visited and given penn law a chance, but the chance to be in NYC closer to home was too tempting.
anyways, i pull in at union station and meet up with wint. might i mention, that union station is one of the prettiest train stations i have ever been to. it's so nice and i can so see it being in old romantic movie scenes. anyways, wint picks me up thursday and we head to her house and it's like i've never been gone. we spend the day eating and chatting and shopping. ooh, it was a DAY of firsts.
firsts list: train ride in the US, seeing philadelphia, chipotle meal, buying a one-piece athletic bathing suit.
our fun day was followed by dinner with calen!!! the witty repartee was as enjoyable as ever, as was the yummy bertuccis. i was so in the mood for italian. he lives in an adooooorable part of arlington. we met his roommate and enjoyed the beautiful view of metro DC from his apartment as we chatted and caught up on the latest duke gossip. hehe. it's so hard to imagine being away from these people!!!
it was suppsoed to snow/ice storm overnight so wint and i headed home and off to bed. friday we woke up and drove to pick up ashley and then headed for yummy waffles and chicken/apple sausage. i LOVE that stuff. haha. i missed those ladies so much!!! not to mention absent friends. but seriously, i felt whole again. haha. anyway, we dropped wint off at swim coaching and shopped a bit before heading back to wint's house (sans wint) to get ready for my bday dinner (so what if it's 6 weeks early?).
drive into g-town area and our restaurant is soooo adorable and yummy!!! there was a scary waiter who we avoided and we snapped up the round jovial one. we get ID-ed (still??) and yummy i missed wine so much! i ordered onion soup and scallops and a trio of sorbet for dessert and was NOT disappointed. i was soooo full and soooo happy.
next we went to d.hsu's (aka dewek's) apt in dc's chinatown where we were met by a bevy of unexpected duke boys!!! i missed my friends!!! yippeee for seeing them!!! i'm a bit jealous that there's such a nexus of them within proximity of DC that could meet like that pretty much at the drop of a hat and i'm all isolated and in the middle of nowhere, but i guess it teaches me to appreciate my friends and also convenience. i've also realized the lengths i'm willing to go to for the people who matter most to me and that's always good to know.
i'm also jealous of how much their lives are more of a transition from college to the real world. they're all surrounded by other 20somethings and in jobs full of 20somethings and they admit that if 1 is college and 2 is real world then they're all in 1.5 right now surrounded by other recent grads and living up the independent solo nontethered life. i wish i could say the same, but my workplace is all ajummas (kindly, but boring) and i'm dealing with the double-pronged fork of adjusting to BOTH a real job AND life in another country. i'm learning a lot, but yep it's surely a challenge.
girly sleepover at wint's sleeping with ashley, more girl talk, and waking up with my favorite faces. wint dropped me and ashley off at a metro stop and we took the metro into DC (another first!). lunch at union station, then train ride home. getting home was a fiasco for another entry. but it was good to be home again.
funny episodes of the weekend: wint and my search for the bathing suit store, protecting calen in DC, derek's bleeding lip, and my ridiculous journey home.
short version of the train ride from DC to Newark gone bad: i miss the newark penn station stop due to miscommunication with seasoned rider next to me. get off at NEW YORK penn station. nobody is particularly helpful. buy njtransit ticket. no indication of platform# or time. no idea how to read train table (plus my stop not listed). finally run to indicated platform. get on. told i'm on wrong train. get off newark penn station. take cab home for $60. dinner with extended fam. reminded how old i am.
m: i get so annoyed when my teachers don't update their websites, i try to do the homework and it's not even up there
h: yea i know, i had a teacher who kept saying she posted stuff but it was never up there
me: when i was in middle school, if you HAD internet you were really nerdy and techy and avant garde
m: remember that time we fell asleep with the ipod video between us and woke up in the same position?
h: haha yea
m: sometimes i get scared that the headphone cord will get tangled around my neck
me: when i was younger i used to sleep with a discman and i was always so nervous about choking on the cord
h&m: discman?
me: a cd player...
h&m: ohhhh yea i know what that is
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