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.