New York City: Random Picture #1

Randy in Little Italy

New York City: Day 3

Some other observations about New York:

• NY bus system... not as hot as the subway, at least near Times Square. Jeff, John & I officially outwalked it.
  
• NY tap water, best damn tap water around!
  
• Manhattan = One Giant Tourist Trap. Not that I mind.
  
• Getting tickets for Broadway musicals are: a) expensive, and b) a big pain in the ass. Chuck stood out in Times square for four hours to find that all the musicals he wanted to go to was unavailable, although he was able to get student rush tickets for BKLYN, which he says was amazing.
  

Yesterday I escorted Jeff from La Guardia to the apartment. I was initiated by taking M60 bus to La Guardia, second guessing and got off to go the other way, to only find out I was right in the first place. So a trip that should have only taken half an hour took an hour and a half. Oh well, I know where the rest of Harlem is.

By the way, small world this is. So myself, Jackie, Jeff, & one of Jeff's friends from Spain and her friend are having dinner in this Indian Cafe near Columbia. So apparently she's originally from California but currently working and living in New York. Interesting. So I find out she's from Alameda. Really interesting. What school did she go to? St. Joseph's. Pause.

WHAT?!?!!?

So apparently, she went to the elementary school that was smack dab in the center of my alma mater, St. Joseph Notre Dame High School. She's an Ariate, and her brother was at the high school at the same time as my sister Michelle. In fact, she remember my sister quite well, including her long hair that went to the nape of her back. So after that we just rattled off names that we both knew for like 2 minutes! I never see people from my high school just randomly, especially since we were only a community of about 700 students at any given time (high school AND elementary), so that made my day.

Today was more low key, Chuck was grounded for a good half the day due to some swelling in his legs from the cold of yesterday. I thought it was a good chance to rest up, so I stayed with him and watched Napoleon Dynamite on my laptop (extremely dorky & hilarious!). Around 4 we both left, with Chuck going to meet up with half my friends who were going to watch Brook Shields in Wonderful Town. With the other half of friends going to The Producers, and me being too lazy to stand in line for tickets, I was on my own. I decided to trek on my own to Union Square and NYU. It was cool; I discovered a small row of businesses on St. Mark's in East Village that reminded me a lot of Berkeley: lots of souvenir shops, used music places, a comic book shop, a used video game shop, and some cool restaurants. Had some great pizza and strawberry NY cheesecake on the corner of St. Mark's & 2nd Ave.

Now I’m off to take in some night life. Woo hoo!

New York City: The Players

So I'll be referring to these names quite a bit over the next few days, so you should know who I'm referring to. So without further ado, the players:


Chuck Del Rosario



Jackie Yu



Jeff Ignacio



John Samson



Richard Quitasol



Lara Javate



Jonathan Garcia



Zara Bukirin



and Me.


And now... let the play continue.

New York City: Day 1

It's 2:37 in the morning, and I should be in bed to pick up Jeff from La Guardia, but I need to get some thoughts on this amazing first day.

First, some observations about New York:

1) Even though this is a big city, it feels very intimate.

In Los Angeles, people are so segregated from each other due to a car culture that shelters people from the outside world, a weak transportation system, and neighborhoods that expand outward. However, in New York, everywhere you go seems to be packed with people, from the subway stations and the subway cars that are maybe only 10 feet wide, to the sidewalks, to the restaurants, everywhere. And it's not just one specific group of people, but people of all races and socioeconomic statuses. This place forces you to interact with people, which is incredibly refreshing from the isolation of LA. It was really trippy to be able to listen to conversations on the other side of subway cars, or beside me on the sidewalks. People seem to be much more willing to engage in conversation, ask questions about the city and each other, and overall people here are very friendly and helpful. Even the police, while I would still question their tactics, seem to interact much better with the populace here than anywhere else I've been. In the shadows of all it's skyscrapers, New York is a people-place, and you'd have a hard time isolating yourself from the environment here.

2) There is incredible diversity in Manhattan, and all of it is easily accessible.

I absolutely love the subway system. It just a few hours I was able to hit up Grand Central and Times Square (in the center of Manhattan), Chinatown and Little Italy (on the South Side), all from Spanish Harlem (in the Upper East Side). And each area has its own distinct and unique flavor. Times Square is your typical big city attraction with its neon lights and towering buildings trapping the gusts into the city streets. Chinatown is a little more low-key, although their streets are still littered with people. This place is filled with more one-story buildings, with souvenirs ranging from the generic knockoffs (like T-Shirts, purses, scarves, etc.) to the culturally unique (like weapons and antiques). Little Italy is just northeast of Chinatown, with mostly Zagat-rated restaurants, delis, cafes, and with some Chinese-run souvenir shops here and there. Tomorrow I plan to hit up Central Park, Greenwich Village, and the United Nations. All-in-all, Manhattan is a bustling place with little places for everyone. It took me several months to really begin to appreciate the nuances of Los Angeles (when I got to know people with cars), but it only took me a few hours to explore New York and discover it's many faces. And I know I'm only scratching the surface.

3) There's a reason why folks are more self-conscious in California than New York.

California is notorious about being extremely self-conscious and obsessed with looks (and no, the Bay Area is not excluded from this critique). Between all the Jamba Juices and Gold's Gyms across the state, the diet-a-season that takes us by storm, breast implants, liposuctions, facelifts, tummy tucks, Botox injections, and all the other freakish mutilations we put ourselves through, we Californians are obsessed with our looks.

And there's a reason: it's the amazing California weather. Sure, we may have a rainy week here and there, but for the most part, we are blessed with sunshine a strong majority of the year. However, with better weather comes more revealing attire. And thus, we Californians expose our bodies far longer than the rest of the nation. And we don't want some nasty body sticking out there, we want them beautiful and fine-tuned.

But in New York, it's a different story. When you actually have seasons, you get winter. And when you face winters at freezing temperatures (like today, when the low was 23 degrees), you're priority is staying warm. That means bundling up. And storing fat. So now you have a situation where: a) hardly anyone knows what your body looks like because you're covering every inch of it in layers of clothing, and b) you're gonna want some extra pounds here and there to keep your innards warm and toasty. And I wondered why the official New York food is the hot dog. (By the way, I broke my vegetarian diet as part of this New York experience and yeah, New York hot dogs are damn good).

4) It's easy to fall in love with New York City.

Maybe it's a honeymoon experience for me, but the intimacy, diversity, and accessibility of Manhattan have really opened my eyes about what New York is about. Really, the pictures and the television do not do this place justice. There is a charm here that you can't find in California, and probably nowhere in the world. Believe me, I'm not blind to the problems here, from the extreme weather to the homeless to the grind of being around so many people for a long time. But I can see how New Yorkers can be so passionate about this place.

I could see how the 9/11 attacks could have a whole different meaning in New York. Yeah, seeing the towers go down was hard on the entire nation, but in New York, these towers were far more intimate, and I don't write that just because they're in New York. For example, If someone destroyed the Transamerica building in San Francisco, I'd be shocked and saddened as many of us would, but chances are, I wouldn't have known anyone killed. But in New York, you interact with everyone. So to see the towers go down, if you were a New Yorker you probably did know someone who worked there, or one of the firefighters, or one of the police killed on 9/11. You might not have known their name, but you probably saw them on the subway, or passing by on the street.

In that sense, New York is one huge family. New Yorkers may not be pleasant to you or each other a lot of the time, but they share a bond with the city and each other that folks in other cities don't quite get. As far as getting decently big cities, I've been to Oakland, San Francisco, San Jose, Los Angeles, Long Beach, Sacramento, San Diego, Las Vegas, Vancouver and Manila/Quezon City, and out of that list, the closest that comes to that New York feel is San Francisco. But even then, San Francisco is on a much smaller scale, and BART can only take you to few sections of the city before you're left to their crappy Muni system to get to the little nooks and crannies. New York is a special place, and you have to be here to see it for yourself.

Greetings from New York City!

Happy Holidays to all! I'm currently in New York City with seven other of my college buddies. I'm right now in an apartment in Spanish Harlem (a special thank you to Maricar, James, & Marlowe), and it only took 15 hours from Los Angeles. The trip included staying up all night for our flight at 6:45 in the morning only to find our flight delayed an hour, which forced us to take a later connecting flight, which was also delayed another hour, so we landed in Newark 3 hours behind schedule. We ran around Newark Int'l deciphering the train system, lost three people in Grand Central Station (they ended up in Queens before finding their way back), and trekking four freezing blocks, all the while using my hand-me-down digital to document it all. Hopefully I'll get my pics up soon.

My Christmas was alright, spending it in Las Vegas. I endured a crappy Las Vegas Bowl (urgh... UCLA lost to Wyoming in the last two minutes), but spent some quality time with friends and family, all the while avoiding the tables and machines in the casinos. I've realized that although I personally hate the city, I meet the coolest folks in Vegas, which is as good as any reason to go.

I'd love to go into more detail, but I'm exhausted. I also need to put up a lost entry about my weekend of the USC/UCLA game. But in the meantime, I need to keep warm.

I Don't Need a Time Machine; I Have the I-5

So I spent Thanks-taking weekend back home in the Bay Area. It was a mixed bag. I spent a lot of time re-connecting with immediate family and some good friends of mine from high school. But I also spent a lot of time mulling at home, surrounded by memories of the past. Although I love reminiscing as much as the next person, I don't feel complete when I'm home. It's like all the memories and life-lessons from the blessed four years I've spent at UCLA all clump into one generic event of "college", and I can't share the people, places, and events that have made me who I am. It's almost like when I step into that house in Oakland, it's like the past four years never happened. It's high school all over again.
Examples from the weekend that brought me back:

• Sleeping in my room, surrounded by memories of my high school and community theatre work
• My father doing finances at his desk, sitting in his chair watching TV, and sleeping.
• My mom doing laundry, and persistently asking me what I want to eat.
• My grandmother watching The Filipino Channel.
• Sleeping my free time away.
• Going to my high school's basketball games. I still didn't feel "cool" enough to be there.
• Visiting Mike's house and playing card games.
• Visiting Mike's Goompa (grandfather), who lives just two houses away from my high school, for his 84th birthday. In high school, Mike and I and a group of other friends would chill at Goompa's house afterschool to play card games and watch afternoon cartoons.
• Fighting off boredom.

Some things don't change, and I appreciate that. But there are so many people and events in LA that have affected me, and I want to share them with my past. Like:

• The time I got the Chancellor to contradict one of his Vice Chancellors (I still have to figure out which one of them was lying)
• Singing in Professor Neuen's chorales
• Witnessing Queer Pin@ys and their allies come together with the message of love and hope
• Marching on Temple Street, recognizing the service of the Filipino American WWII Veterans when their country will not
• Serving on the Campus Retention Committee, making sure that half a million dollars of student fees are being spent with integrity
• Strategizing with faculty, alumni, and grad students about how we're going to make Pilipino Studies at UCLA a reality
• Counseling students trying find their place at UCLA
• Re-discovering the foundations of my existence (physical health, positive social interaction, and faith that my life has purpose), and unraveling the complexities that distract me from these foundations

In my short life, I've come to learn that death is a gift, and in my quest to connect my past and my present, I look to Helen Toribio's spirit for hope. Helen was a community activist and a role model for my sister during her college years. In Helen's final days, my sister would bring my mom along to visit her in the hospital and keep her company. When my mother told me how she got to know Helen, it was like seeing two pieces of my sister's life come together. It was like my mom was beginning to understand why my sister would get so involved with community activism, why it was important to her. It's that spirit of community that I hope to bring my past into my present, that they can understand why these "extracurriculars" are so important to me, and that I don't feel like I have to go back in time when I travel up the I-5.

A Most Awesome Website

While surfing through cyberspace reading random online journals, I found a link to the Common Dreams Newscenter. A plethora of thought-provoking essays, which explore ranged topics such as:

• Wrestling the Democratic Party from elites, political consultants, and the center
  
• Dissecting the concept of "fighting for one's country"
  
• National movements challenging election fraud abroad, and how it's being orchestrated from the US AND
  
• How Saddam Hussein, a dictator who had almost $10 billion in his personal account, and could have lived in luxurious exile in some tropical paradise, ended up "in a hole in the ground with a rug and a fan"

Beautiful stuff.

(A shout-out goes to Leny, who helped me discover Common Dreams by reproducing one of its beautiful essays by Howard Zinn.)