A Snowy welcome

Feeling: Good?
Current Love:The Twelves - When you talk

Greetings from the East! It's been a week since I've made my way home to humble East Hampton, CT. My flight was delayed for an hour and luckily the massive snowstorm in CT had died down by the time arrived. I did have to wait for an hour or so to claim my baggage due to "lack of crew members". It was lame, but I'm just glad to be home. Home looked pretty different but definitely relaxing compared to my small apt on campus.

On Thursday I went to pick up my roommate Christine from the airport. She missed her transfer flight and unfortunately had to wait 3 more hours for the next flight + delays. But other than that, all is well!
grades
We went after Christmas shopping a the "premium outlet" in Clinton. It's the same chain as the one in Michigan City, where I visited for the first time during Black Friday. This outlet tho had better store in my opinion like Barney's and Sak's. I didn't buy much, but I was pretty happy with my loots.

So apart from the relaxing stuff, I was content with my grades for the semester. It's a definite improvement from last semester, but not a 4.0. My B in ME323 probably could have been avoided if I didn't screw up on the first exam. And I thought I was going to do well in the class...ugh.


In other news...3 more days until nyc/nye!

Waaa Finals

My last final is in an hour, but I don't know what to study anymore. I stayed up till 2 last night studying; maybe I should have managed my time better...

Sorry for the lack of posts, but I promise winter break will be exciting!

Happy Diwali

Feeling: Full


Lights minus music. Although I don't know awfully much about Diwali, I celebrated it by going to all-you-can eat Diwali Dinner at Pujabi, my new favorite Indian joint. I went with my roommate, and the food was good as usual. I retold her my Diwali dinner adventure from last year, where I went to Khana Kazana, a bigger Indian buffet, and waited for almost and hour to get a seat. The food was ok, but mostly of what I can remember was eating too much and wanting to throw up afterwords, because my stomach felt like it was going to explode.

Today has been fairly productive. I went to the Black Culture Center for the first time on an "cultural experience" assignment for ME290. Some of the information was intriguing, but half of the time I just thought about how our tour guide can talk so much.
Tomorrow my 2nd round of exams commences. Sucks, since I had just finished the 1st round last week. I'm semi-confident about my math exam tomorrow, but I'm nervous about the phone interview I have tomorrow with Eaton.
The company had to cancel their on-campus interviews due to "travel difficulties", whatever that means, so they're only doing phone interviews. This would be my first time doing a phone interview, so I'm not really sure what's going to happen, but hopefully it will be easy. To be honest, I'm not overly interested about Eaton, but I am about Zebra, whom I really do want an internship with. Fortunately I landed an interview for this Friday (Halloween!), so wish me luck.

October Break Party

"My bridge holds 45 lbs. How many can yours hold?"

Feeling: Distracted
Current Love: Skeleton Boy - Friendly Fires

I should do my laundry. I told myself I would today, but the weather was blah this morning. I have done laundry only twice this semester, both at a friend's place. I would feel guilty asking him again, so I reluctantly am determined to go to the laundry mat..soon. First time is the hardest right? I think I can make it till the weekend...

This weekend was October Break. I was scheduled to fly home, but since my mom is off to the motherlands for 2 month, going home for 3 days seems like a waste. So my 1st home bound trip is rescheduled for Christmas break. I didn't do too much over break. I took the weekend off for work, because I thought I wouldn't be here. My first Saturday not working was not too exciting, maybe even abit disappointing.
To make up for the lack to excitement, I planned my Monday to be semi-productive. I woke up at 10:30 and went to the corec to exercise. Luckily the weather has been warm these past few days, so it felt especially nice to be outside. After returning home, I had a nice brunch and ventured to Lafayette with my roommate Christine. It was the 2nd time I that I had taken the bus to go shopping in the east side. I kind of like riding the bus out there, because I get to see many areas of Lafayette that I have never seen before. At the same time, it reminds me of how ghetto and jank the east side is.

We went to TJMaxx for a pair of converse Christine wanted (which they were sold out of...).We stopped by Sonic for Happy Hour and shopped ahoy. After a few hours of browsing, I only picked up some socks. Granted I found clothe that I liked, but I'm becoming really selective about the things that I buy.
We made it home around 6:30 and made yakisoba for dinner, broke out the Boone's Farm, and watched American Psycho. What a weird movie.

All in all, break was ok. I probably could have used my time more wisely, but whatev.

Happy Chipotle day

Fancy banner

Feeling: ?
Current Love: Strangers in the Wind - Cut Copy

I'm 3 for 3 on free burritos. Today was Chipotle's annual free burrito day.

I got off of class at 1:30 and scouted out the line. The entrance was clear to my surprise, but then I realized the line was going in the opposite direction. But still, it wasn't too bad. I dropped off my stuff at my apt, luckily only 2 minutes away from Chipotle, and cut in line with my friend Rachel.
I still remember the grand opening 2 years ago. Ironically, John was in line again with us this year. Funny how I wrote about how he didn't talk much, and it being awkward; can't say that things have changed too too much.
After the "event" started at 2, the line moved relatively fast. We got our food probably around 20 minutes later. I think they've improved on the "assembly line" every year, but all the employees seemed like they were attacking you.
The things you do for free burrito.

While waiting in line, I was thinking about why Chipotle do these kind of things. Do they just have too much money to throw around? I don't see it as a very good marketing scheme, seeing everyone who decides to spend hours waiting in line for a burrito must already be a dedicated Chipotle eater. The more logical goal I thought was for statistical purposes. But what can they really get out of it? :ponders:

Forgotten dreams past 10 minutes

Isn't she lovely?

Feeling: Semi-productive
Current Love: N/A


I can't believe it's almost half way through September already. Despite the fact that first week was slow, these past two weeks flew by pretty fast. I still feel like I'm new to all the classes, but before I know it, it's gonna be exam time...
Out of all my classes, I'm not particularly enjoying my ME design class and partial diffeq. I really looked forward to math before school started, but my professor is kind of boring. Design class is also a big disappointment. I'm not that interested in our problem, and there's a lot of tedious research and memo writing. boo.
ME365, Systems and Measurement, is actually turning out to be ok. The first few lectures were not that enjoyable, and my professor isn't very good at teaching either, but we just started doing some basic statistic and sampling, which brings back memories of my IE stat class. Maybe I miss it alittle, but I think I did myself I favor switching out of IE. In the 365 lab today, we played around with an ADC (Analog to Digital Converter), which basically translate analog signals to bits for the computer can interpret, and the converts it back to the original signal to be outputted. The lab wasn't that interesting, but it was in the end that made everything so great. The TA demonstrated the ADC converter with music. The input was a song playing from a computer, and the signal is monitored on the oscilloscope. The input runs through the ADC and then it output it through speakers. He demonstrated the change in signal by tweaking the sampling rate and adding filters, where all the effects are noticeable by the change in the music.
It was really insightful, because I finally understand what sampling rate meant in mp3s, how hi-pass/lo-pass actually works, and lots of other things. I always hoped that I would learn about this, and now I have.
Science is a great thing.

Speaking of science, this whole week had been pretty busy with all the job fair dealies. I was pretty excited about the prospect of Industrial Roundtable, because I was really looking forward to speaking with some of the companies. Last Sunday I attended "Day with Industries" hosted by PSWE. Basically it was banquet lunch with company representatives followed by 3 seminar sessions hosted by different companies. The lunch was pretty good, and I sat by a BME grad from GE. I'm not really interested in GE, but it was good networking considering the people at my table had some interesting experiences. The seminars were abit boring. They were pretty much the same and talked about how students should prepare for the career fair. I did attend the BP session, where they talked about projects and activities in the downstream refineries.

Tuesday was the first day of IR. I was still a little nervous stepping foot on the fair ground even though I've experienced it last year. I spent about 3 hours on Tuesday talking to companies and loitering around scouting out free stuff. Surprisingly I was able to give away all 10 copies of the resume I had printed off. Not bad, plus the bag full of loot, with half of it being food products from P&G and Unilever. Tuesday night was a pre-interview dinner with Chevron. They pre-screened a lot of the resume before the fair, so I landed an interview with them wed. The dinner was at Maize, and I had a really tasty Brazilian steak. My past 2 experiences at Maize wasn't that great, but I did enjoy it this time. The Chevron rep that sat at my table was a CE. He talked too much, and so did everyone else at my table, but I guess the food makes up for it. I glanced at the bill at the end of the night, and it ended up being a gram (I'd say there were about 20-25 people). Damn cooperates and their monies.
Too be honest, my interest in oil companies is pretty indifferent. I really want to work on a alternative energy project, but that's not available for interns. When I was going to my interview, I ran into a friend/fellow ME student, and he frowned upon the fact that I'm interviewing with an oil company. "I never expected you would want to work for them, oil companies are evil" he said.
I told my interviewer about the story, and asked what his thoughts were. He answered it very well, and concluded with "before you blame others, look in the mirror."
Totally well put.
The interview with Chevron was harder than I thought, and I didn't enjoy it too much. I still did well though, and got a pretty decent backpack out of it. Because my interview was in the afternoon, I didn't get too much time to walk about IR afterwards. I stopped by the companies I was interested in, and went home.
That night, I got a call from International Papers, whose booth I visited on Tuesday. I had an interview with them the following day, and it went well. My interviewer talked a lot about his experience with international projects, and it was so cool to hear all the global opportunities. in retrospect, that's really what I want to do when I graduate, work and traveling.
I'm still waiting to hear from the companies that I was really interested in, but that might not be few a few month. I'm excited about the prospect of an internship in a great city, with great people, and a wonderful company.

Hello 3rd year

View from atop the $600 apt.

Feeling: Refreshed
Current Love: American Boy - Estelle

Happy 2nd day of school. Despite my lack of enthusiasm for the beginning of school, I've felt pretty good being in classes again. I'm only taking 13 credit hours this semester, so my class load is pretty light (minus friday, which I have 4 classes and 1 lab. Totally lame, and I can't switch sections because everything else is full). I woke up monday morning around 10:30, my semi-usual time that I've gotten up for work over the past few weeks. I had a nice breakfast/lunch with my leftover pizza from La Scala, and headed out for my 11:30 class. I took the usual route to campus as I do for work, but this time around, there's a lot more people...a lot more. It felt weird, but at the same time I was happy to see the campus "alive" again. Seeing all the students reminded me of when I strolled around campus as a high school students. I felt pretty intimidated and out of place back then, wishing there weren't so many people...Funny.

ME323 went ok if not abit boring, but that's expected. My 2nd and last class of the day was MA304, which from the looks of it, should be fairly easy. After, I went to work for 2 hours and then to the pool with Kaveh, Bridgette, and Stephanie. We planned the very 1st Podka of the semester, set to be at my place. There wasn't a big attendance, and also lack of "po", and just a bit of "ka". Nevertheless, it was still fun, including the very random party venture into the $600 apt across the street.
I didn't get to bed till 3 or so and woke up with a slight headache. Luckily I only had 2 classes today, both in the same room: ME263 and ME365, my 2 lab courses for the semester. I suppose that's about it for now, hopefully the rest of the week won't be too bad.

Burning Down the House

Feeling:?
Current Love: None

4 more days until I began my junior year at Purdue. I'm not ready for school yet, deep down. I'm pretty content with my lifestyle at the moment: work, food, sleep, party, movie, etc. Looking through the textbooks for the semester gave me headaches. Maybe I'm a little scared, because I feel like I haven't learned as much I should have last semester, and that everything I learned have already disappeared out of my head. I guess we'll see how things go...
Being a Junior also feels weird. Am I already half way done with my BS degree? In a way, I'm still trying to figure out how everything I learned thus far will apply to my career later on. I'm hoping it'll all piece together soon..very soon.

In other news, I almost burned down my new apt the other day. What seemed to be another day of light lunch cooking turned into a flaming disaster. I was starting to make fried rice for lunch. I heated up the pan very hot and added the oil, unexpectedly, the oil set aflame and was burning like an unstoppable forest fire. I was shocked at first, because I've never had this happen before (granted I was using my roommate's skillet). I was hoping the oil would burn out in a few seconds, but that obviously wasn't going to happen. I panicked and tried to think of what to do. It crossed my mind to pour water over it, but I pictured the aftermath to be a disaster and am glad I didn't do it. I ended up finding a lid and covered up the flame. Soon it died down, but the entire apt was left in a smog of clouded black smoke. The fire detector went off, which didn't alleviate the situation very much. My roommate emerged from her room and was pretty confused. I didn't know she was home, which made the situation a little awkward for me. We did our best to ventilate the place, and after a few minutes the beeping finally stopped.
All the smoke vented after a few hours, and the metal/smoky smell finally went away later, leaving trails of black ashes from here and there. I realize now how people suffocate from fire smoke. Even though my apt wasn't blazing, it was still hard to breath under all the smoke.
I suppose in the end, I'm glad things didn't turned out any worse. I don't want to be homeless right before school starts, plus, I'm taking quite a liking to that little building I call home now.

Breeze from the underpath

Serene Wabash.

Feeling: Tipsy
Current Love: None

Stealing internets from Vienna, that's what I do after the fall of web2.0 and tonnny. I'm kind of stuck in limbo right now. Most of my stuff are already moved to my new apt, but I can't live there quite yet b/c I'm still waiting for my bed to arrive, which hopefully will tomorrow. Life feels weird without internet, but thank god for free wifi.
Today was my 2nd day of training at La Scala. Things were definitely slower today (for the better), and I got out early too, around 9:30. My trainer, Ryan, was really nice and cool, and we ended up chatting for awhile during down time. She even gave me a $3 tip at the end of the night for helping her out. woot, my first tip.
I'm pretty comfortable with serving, but I'm still shaky about the menu. I'm really scared that someone's going to order something, and I'll be clueless as to what it was. Too much fancy Italian words.
The wine list doesn't worry me as much surprisingly. I'm pretty confident that most people know what they want. plus I know at least the basics to make me sound smart even if I don't know what I'm talking about.
My manager already scheduled me to work next thurs. I had no idea until I looked at the time table. I think I'll be ready by then and start pulling in cash.
I'll take that back. There's not really a cash register at the retaurant. The owner has some weird ordeal with cashing at the end of the night. Ryan tried to explain it to me, but I only somewhat understood. But the bottom line is, I don't really get tip money each night, I have to wait for the owner to write a check every week. Bummers.

Today's weather was really nice, which made the walk back to the west side fairly enjoyable. I sat on the pedestrian bridge for a while; took in the scene and lit up a smoke.
Working late nights kind of makes me wish I can go out to the bars. It sounds great to just get a drink or two after work.

"Vodka vodka bomb bomb!"

Speaking of drinking, Mike had a little shin din at his place this past tues. My new roommate Christine and her friends came over, and the night resulted in beer pong and soju/vodka bombs. We were all pretty inebriated by the end of the night, and somehow what's left of the party ended up at my sparsely furnished new apt. We sat out/laid out in the living room, talked and played truth or dare. The next thing I know, I woke up in the morning to my alarm, passed out on the floor. I'm not sure how it happened, but it did. I wasn't feeling the greatest, so I called work and said I wasn't coming. But the good news was that a few hours later, I got the call from La Scala--- thus began my life as a waitress.

One job and another

Feeling: Clumsy
Current Love:Great DJ (Calvin Harris Remix) - The Ting Tings

Today has not been a good day for work. Although the sun is blooming outside, I feel rather tired even after 7 hours of sleep. I keeping on messing up at work. Nothing major, but just little things that makes me feel like I'm totally off today.

But in better news, I got hired at La Scala! I put in an application near the beginning of summer, but they said they were full staffed at the moment and may call back later in the summer. I wasn't too hopeful, so I was pretty surprised to have received a call last week for an interview....which I rocked. I came out feeling great, but I wasn't sure if I would get hired based on the fact that I have no serving experience.
Alas, I guess the manager liked me.
Yesterday was my first day of training. I went in during dinner shift and helped set up the tables for a bit. Everything started out pretty slow, and I was just observing, making salads, setting bread, etc. Things got busy around 7 when the 30 some old people came for a surprise party. My trainer commented that it was a really busy Tuesday even for a party, so it was kind of a bad day for training. I was pretty tired at the end even though I didn't do that much, but hopefully things won't feel so hectic once I get a handle of things.
Carrying a tray for the first time was also scary. I definitely spilled this one guys soup all over the saucer, but hopefully he didn't mind too much.
One thing that happened, which I didn't witness but heard, was about this couple that was dinning. The guy just left without saying anything, so the girl had to pay and was crying by the table. Odd.
The restaurant normally closes at 9, but I didn't get out till 10:30 or so. I was planning on eating dinner at Panera on my walk back, but I had to resort to eating ramen at home.

Salty waters

DSC00882a, originally uploaded by Lainii.

where I want to be.

Welcome to your new home

I moved into my new apt today (partially) and found this lovely welcoming present. Apart from that, a box of ramen.
I'm in love.

North by Northeast Pt. 6: I Fell in Love at the Seaside

Bradley Int' Airport

Feeling: Sunny
Current Love: Just a Little Bit - Lykke Li

Hello Indiana. I made it back to good ol West Lafayette this Wed. My evening flight from Hartford went smoothly, except for the $25 fee for an extra checked bag. Seriously, why are airlines being so cheap? I was greeted by Kaveh and Bridgette at the baggage claim, and I cracked a smile--- It's swell to see your friends again.

West Lafayette looked the same yet different. I took in the sight a little differently on my way into town, trying to compare it to the Connecticut country side. Looking back, there are a few things I thoroughly enjoyed out in New England and will miss. Foremost, the ocean.


Since I've been back, things have fallen back to the usual shindings of this summer. Though kickball season may be over, the pool parties are abundant. Ever since the discovery of the Benchmark pool, the entourage have enjoyed much fun by the pool side. I also started working again this morning. Bad news is that I'll be working morning shifts for the rest of the month, but the good news is that my boss doesn't care if I want to sleep in and come an hour later, as long as I work the agreed hours.
Speaking of work, my means of transportation have been cut short. Apparently someone shanked my bike while I was gone, and now it's sitting in Mike's apt waiting for me to save it. I haven't seen the wreckage, but I really hope it doesn't suck.

What I miss:
- The amazing stars seen from my woodland backyard. Unfortunately it's cloudy on most nights, but when you do get to see the stars, wow.
- The calming ocean breeze
- The city
- The non-lacking of crustaceans and mollusks
What I don't miss:
- Wild turkeys pooping in our back yard in broad day light
- Our dog barking

North by Northeast Pt. 5: Cambridge Cardigans

Feeling: sweaty
Current Love: Talk Like That (Miami Horror Remix) - The Presets

This past Saturday my fam took a road trip to Boston. It was my first time in Boston, and overall it seemed like a pretty nice place. We visited Harvard and MIT first; Nothing too impressive I suppose. Harvard's campus just had a lot of trees, old buildings, and tourists. MIT had some really unique asymmetric metal building/architectures, but its campus buildings are old and jank. (So maybe Purdue isn't that bad) Boston was quite pretty, at some areas, much to my surprise. There's a good night life, and not just the bars and clubs. We visited this square after sunset where it was filled with lots of shops, kiosks, carts, and whatnot. You don't see much of that in NY or Chicago, so it was nice.

Harvard Square. Nothing super exciting, just a lot of people.


Tourists at a Harvard building.


MIT's main building with a really big lawn.


Boston harbor area. Giant reflective pool and a museum(?).


A mall we visited. I forget the name, but it had really nice greens inside and out.


By the pier. Live Nation tent in the background.


Waiting....


wtf Live Nation.


Somehow we manage to drive by the Boston Chinatown, thus we ended up eating dinner there. Pretty good and cheap actually.


Sun setting by the harbor...and skaters.

Just another day by the ocean

DSC00862, originally uploaded by Lainii.

wave, breeze, and everything in between.

Kids and Seagulls

DSC00860, originally uploaded by Lainii.

Kids crabbing with drums sticks,
seagulls lurking high.

North by Northeast Pt. 4: New York, I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down

Feeling:Thirsty...for water
Current Love:Nobody Lost, Nobody Found - Cut Copty

My legs are sore. probably from the 20 or so collective miles I've walked the past 2 days. I had a mini road trip down to New York. Overall, I thought my trip planning was pretty successful. Initially, I planned on taking the Amtrak from Hartford to Penn station, but after some research and talking with friends, I realized it was kind of a ripoff; $33-$47 for a single ride. So instead, I looked in MTA's North-Railroad New Haven line. As the name suggests, it's a train line that goes up and ends in New Haven. The fare is only $14, and I've taken the Hudson line before commuting from Newark Airport in NJ to the city, so it was pretty legit. I then found an express bus that ran from Hartford to New Haven during morning and evening commutes --- $4.30 fare. Perfect.
I went down Tuesday mainly so I could check out the Palms Out Sound show. 19+, $5 cover, and loads of good local and international artists. I made it successfully into the city, and stepped out of Time Square Subway stop around 10. It felt great to be in the city again, and I couldn't help but smile.
I walked around Midtown abit and through the Fashion Ave where bunch of hipster students of the Fashion Institute was taking pictures. I met up with Brad for lunch by his place and had a nice chat. Afterwards, I decided to check out East Village.
St. Marks and East Village
I failed to mention when I was in NY last time, I witnessed a totally weird accident walking down Delancey. The two way street is divided by a curb. The right side traffic was stopped at a red light, then out of nowhere, a car that turned into the left side just drove straight onto the curb and hit a van that was just chilling and waiting for the light. Sux to be the owner of that car. What are the odds? I don't know if that car just sped out of control or what, but it kind of was like something that could've been in "The Happening" (Still haven't seen it).
But what I wanted to get to was that I saw another odd thing walking down St. Marks. A window screen on some multi story residential building just fell off from some stories up, hit a van parked under it, and bounced off onto the street; kind of like a not so exciting "What Now?" commercial.
Anyways, East Village was alright. I didn't really walked around NYU campus much, just check out some shops.

Man rushing to the train at the New Haven Union Station. Futuristic!


I arrived at Union Station and took the shuttle to Time Square. Sanrio was the first store I stopped in.


Saw a Muji store in the area and went in. I wanted to check out the non-linear planner I read on Lifehacker. Pretty neat.


Less than an hour in New York and spotted someone famous. Ninja shot. Guess who?


Tasty Crepe dinner and Sangria with Connie.


Oh Snap! at Santo House Party. Even his hit song wasn't too exciting live.


Disco Laser!


Lismore! Short was wayy too short.

--------------
Day Two - Wednesday


Leaving the city. Shot of Grand Central Station.

Even though I went to bed around 4, being tired and buzzed, I still couldn't fall asleep and wasn't sure if I slept very well. I had to wake up at 9 to leave with Connie. We got off at Union Station and checked out the Farmer's Market there. I walked around the city more after Connie left for work, hitting up stores and the interesting bookstore named Strand. I took the 2:33 train to New Haven and bid my adieu to the lovely city. Till another time.
The bus to Hartford wasn't till 6:45. I planned the time to get a chance to go around New Haven, home of Yale University. Fortunately the train station was only a mile or so from downtown. I initially wanted to take the bus in, but I got tired of waiting. I didn't get shot walking into the city, so that's fine with me.
Downtown and Old Yale campus is actually quite small, I would say only a 1.5 miles radius. After a lot of walking and making a purchase at Urban Outfitters on Broadway, I walked over to the bus stop on Church and Walls and took the Hartford bound Dacco bus, where my parents picked me up from Middletown.

All in all, a very enjoyable trip.

New Haven Greens, complete with 3 churches.


New Haven Greens with the city backdrop.


An Entrance to Yale campus.


More churches!


Broadway Ave., the shopping center.

North by Northeast Pt. 3: I Fell in Love at the Seaside

Today me and my parents went beach hopping.

The first state park we went to: Hammonasset. It had a pretty nice beach.


We stopped in at some random small town by the shore.


The town beach.


People fishing at some place we stopped by. Long Island in the background.


The water at Harkness Memorial State Park is really clear for salt water. We picked a lot of periwinkles here.


...and crabs.


They're cute, no?

North by Northeast Pt. 2: The Conn State

Feeling: Tired
Current Love: E-talking - Soulwax

Happy July 4th on this cloudy Friday. It's been a pretty slow day. I finally got to sleep in really for the 1st time this week, but I was woken up by a loud crash and my mom screaming... apparently my dad fell of the ladder when hanging up a picture. My mom took him to the ER, because he bit his tongue (I didn't see it), so I've been watching TV for the past 4 hours or so.

We didn't plan anything for today, because we were all pretty exhausted from the NY trip yesterday. I had fun, and going around seems a lot interesting now that I know the area better from my Y2K8 adventures.

Before I start talking about that, I suppose I should continue from where I left off in part one.

Monday was the closing date for our new house. We only drove about 5 hours through the rest of Pennsylvania and arrived in CT. The town/house was alittle different that what I expected. In my mind I imagined these houses I saw when I was in Hilton Head Island some years ago: pretty and chic, but instead, I got the boonies.
East Hampton is the name of the town, built around southern end of Lake Pocotopaug, southeast of capital Hartford.The population is around 12k. There's one grocery store, a CVS, an Ace Hardware, McDonald's, Subway, Dunkin' Donuts, and some local stores as far as I've seen.

Our new home. 56 East Hambridge St.


Shot from upstairs down to entry way.


Main road into town by Lake Pocotopaug. Cute houses and private docks.


I went to the closing. My first time ever, so it was interesting hearing all the details of the contract and mortgage.


First night's beds in the living room. Our stuff was set to arrive the next day.


Unloading our home.


Huge sign on our neighbor's lawn. Turns out they just wanted to build a shed. Funny how little towns are.


Road by our house deeper into the subdivision towards the lake.

--------------------
Thursday
Yesterday's venture into NY was to renew our recently expired passports. We started early and drove into uptown Manhattan where the Chinese Embassy was located. We were there for about two hours which was annoying mainly because it was kind of boring just waiting around and filling out forms.

We drove down the west coast. Cruise ships are huuuuge, almost sureal.


Pretty church.


BMW dealer with cute compact cars.


2manycops.


View from the 2nd floor of Embassy. Protesters outside wanting to legalize the highly controversial Falun Gong practice in China.


We went to Flushing in upper Brooklyn after business was taken care of. Here's a shot from the inside of a Pinkberry.


Yummy Lamp Kabobs.


Lunch in Flushings. Forgot what the restaurant was called, but it was by the big Hong Kong supermarket.

After leaving Flushings, we drove into Chinatown in Manhattan and walked around here before walking over the Soho where I had a pretty fulfilling shopping adventure, even if it was just 2 stores.
By the time we made it home it was already past midnight. I was way tired and crashed happily on my bed. Good day.