>>pk@columbia

10.27.01 - two guys and a girl

After my hardest week of college to date, which included hours of midterm cramming, essay writing, and book reading, I found the ultimate stress relief in my outing with two very special people, Harry and Diana. As New York City residents and all hailing from the town of Edison, NJ, we had not had the opportunity to hang out all together in the city. Harry, who goes to NYU, suggested that we go to South Street Seaport. Along with my Barnard friend Diana, I met up with Harry and the three of us rode down to the seaport. The smell of burning rubber still persisted in the air from the World Trade Center incident more than a month ago. The streets were not as crowded and the mall-like Pier 17 at South Street was almost empty. We walked around the stores while we talked about things that made us laugh. It was good to see Harry again because I had missed his blunt way of talking, his mean and harsh backtalking remarks, and his nasal voice that is always fun to imitate. With Diana present, today's outing reminded me of an outing four months ago, when it was also two guys and a girl hanging out in New York City.

Back in June, after most of the school work for the year had been completed, Harry and I decided to cut school to hang out in New York. I also invited my sweet Jewish friend Hannah along. It was a great day: sunny, crisp-cool weather and a New York City bustling with people on a Friday. We took pictures at Union Square, drank fruit drinks and tea at Xando's, and ate a vegetarian lunch at Zen Palate to please Hannah. We then walked around Soho, took more pictures, visited a store with drag queen features, which scared Hannah and intrigued Harry, and we finished the day with a movie at the Angelika Theatre (Memento). Overall, it was a pleasant outing and if not for the insane traffic home, we would all have super-fond memories of that day. Today's outing evoked memories of this day with a few different factors. Instead of the sweet Hannah, we now had cool Diana, a soft-spoken half-Chinese half-Jewish girl whose boyfriend Bo had gone to Buffalo for a Halloween Party. I didn't have to worry this time about whether or not Harry was going to get along well with her because he had already been friends with Diana for a while. On the June outing, Harry went into fun-mode and was great in interacting with Hannah, who he didn't know as well.

Walking around made the three of us quite hungry, so we opted to walk to Little Italy for dinner. We went into Paesano of Mulberry St. and ate some pasta. The stuffed mushroom for appetizer was terrible, but the Rigatoni a la vodka was decent and Harry's linguine with white clam sauce was very good. We then stopped at Ferrera Bakery & Cafe for an 80 cent canoli before going to a Chinese place for some bubble tea. My green tea flavored was bitter while Harry's coffee flavor was sweeter. But since the weather was turning colder, I couldn't hold my iced cup much longer and threw it out. What I found rewarding about these two friends was that our distance apart made it imperative that we have a good time while we were together. We told jokes - some corny, some witty, and some referential - and shared many laughs. We joined up with my Columbia friends Johnny, Pete, Steph, and Joyce to watch From Hell at the AMC Theatre in Times Square. I had not been to Times Square in more than a year and I was very suprised by the change it had undergone in that short time - the new buildings, the new lights, and the narrower streets. The movie was creepy and it left us all with an eery feeling that we wanted to forget. The solution? A bit of Dionysus magic - courtesy of Blue in Koreatown. All seven of us trekked twelve blocks to Blue, a Korean sit-down drink place mainly aimed at teenagers. We didn't even need to show a fake ID; we ordered the sweet drinks mixed with soju and did our rounds. After five bottles we were each buzzed a bit. We left for White Castle and stuffed ourselves with a Crave Case before heading back to Columbia. Harry decided to come with us. The latter part of the evening was interesting because it was a fusion of my high school friends and my college friends. At times Diana and Harry would be separated from the rest, but after some time, especially after drinking, everyone conversed with each other and I found myself among a group of friends.

As I try to think of a way to sleep tonight, as Diana and Harry take up each of the beds in my room (my roommate is away for the weekend), I feel grateful for the friends I have in this city. Last night, two other high school friends, Ken and Marguerite, came to visit me for a few hours and helped me to relax befor resuming my midterm studies. It's comforting to know that in this city, I will always have people I can call up if I need to talk or just hang out. I once thought that a tighly-knit, exclusive crew would be the answer to having fun. I now realize that a wider range of personas will help me to experience the world better. The world may be a complex place with many things to worry about, but essentially, the world is a bunch of people interacting with each other. I want my experience in the world to be as enriching and memorable as possible. I ought to ask Harry who the next girl on our New York outing should be.