Jes’ Weblog

This past friday (13th), the “Big East Career Fair” was held at Madison Square Garden in NYC. Fortunately, USF is one of the Big East Schools, and we were allowed to attend. I talked to a lot of companies while I was there, and got a few leads. However, many companies were not openly looking for the skills I can provide.

Because I flew in that morning, I was exhausted. So, after eating lunch with a couple friends, I met my Dad at the hotel at 3:30, and crashed for about 4 hours. That night we walked around Times Square for a couple hours, and then had dinner at a restaurant up the street from the Virgin Megastore (which is closing btw).

The next day, Dad and I went down to Ground Zero to see the memorial. Unfortuantely, a lot of it was closed off for construction, so we couldn’t see much. We did, however, find a guy who knew a lot about the event, and had photo-books from 9/11 that were very moving.

Afterword, we walked up to Chinatown to look around. I really enjoyed being here, with all the offers available for bags, watches and jewelry. I got a good deal and bought a couple bags here. This is also a great place to practice barting, by the way. It seemed like everything there was negotiable, so it was fun to see how low you could get stuff.We spent some more time seeing the sights, including the empire state building before heading back uptown to the hotel to get ready for the night.

We bought tickets to see “Reasons to be  Pretty” and had really good seats. This broadway play was histerical, and if you get the chance you should go to see it! It is about what happens after a long-term boyfriend says something about how his girlfriend’s face is just average, and his friend’s girlfriend calls her and lets her know. Regardless of if you are male or female, you can relate to all 4 characters.

I had a good time while I was there, and hope I get the opportunity to do it again.

In February (last month), as part of a social event, USF AMA had a cook-off. The rules were 2.5 hours to shop and cook a meal, and you could spend no more than $5 per person.

Of course, the guys decided to ignore the rules completely. We managed to cook an amazing meal within the constraints though!

We made an appetizer of motzarella sticks and dip that was absolutely amazing, and caprese as our salad.  The main course was chicken and eggplant parmigiana with pasta and home-made sauce. For desert, we had a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting.

The boys made an Italian appetizer: melon rapped in smoked ham. I’d never heard of it before, and it was alright, but not something I’d jump up-and-down to get. Their salad was a regular tossed salad with almonds. Their main course was awesome: shish kabob with shark, scallops, chicken, and vegetables. For desert, they made a pineapple upside down cake!

So, I have some of our crazy decorations from christmas this year. First, we decorated our tree with all the decorations we’ve collected since I was a baby, including the bears from my baby mobile.

We had decorations left over, and someone spotted the potted plant in the corner. Of course! Why not decorate that tree as well!

Billy got to put the angel on top of the tree this year. That’s everyone’s favorite job, because she’s such a pretty little doll. We also put out Billy’s nut-cracker and my Czech doll, though you cant’ see them in the pic.

So I didn’t have to go back and forth for the break, I brought Kira to Mom’s while I was there. She aclimated to the new enviroment very quickly.  She was so cute, because she wanted to be around us all the time. If we went outside, she’d try and see what we were doing, by sticking her paws and head through the blinds. I thought this was too funny, because it looked like she was in a guillotine. This is also when we learned that she loves Ice-cubes.

While I was home, I made a lasagna so that I could freeze it an have meals throughout the semester. It came out really good, and it was definitely a help to have a nutricious meal at the ready all semester.

Luke, Me, and Yuichiro

This year, rather than flying directly to Binghamton to visit family, I realized it was much more economical to fly into NYC. Fortunately, this allowed me to visit a very good friend of mine since high school, Luke.

I flew in the Monday after exam week, and stayed through Friday. I got to meet Luke and his Girlfriend that night. The next day, Luke and I went to meet up with a couple of my friends, and we spend some time in Grand Central Station waiting for them. Then we went all over the place, including the New York Public Library!

Me On the NYC Library Lion

This trip, I really wanted to do the things I hadn’t had the opportunity to do during past trips to NYC. So, Yuichiro, Hiroshi, and I went to Rockefeller center, and Ice Skated under the giant Christmas Tree. Later, we went to Yoshinoya (a Japanese fast food chain from Japan), and to M&M world. That was a lot of fun, because we got to choose any types of M&M’s we wanted.

We also went to see Forbidden Broadway. This was awesome because it was a very small venue, and we were in the second row. This plot was basically two hours of critiquing all the other plays on Broadway, and the actors were hysterical! This is definitely one that’ll be worth seeing again since the act will change based upon what’s playing.

That Friday, the plan was to take a bus to Binghamton to meet Dad. The trip was supposed to take about three hours, but the weather had other ideas. There was the big snow storm with driving warnings and everything going on. I went to the station early, hoping to avoid the storm. Lukily I did, because I caught the last bus out of the City! We left at 11am, and arrived in Binghamton at 9:30pm! Crazy, right? On the bus, I finished the book I was reading, and then slept the majority of the trip away.

Because of the storm warnings and how late it was, I got to stay with my Grampa! Conviniently, his apartment is across the street from the bus station! I had a really good time talking with him an everything. He’s such a cool guy, and has great stories.

It would appear that I didn’t take a lot of pictures while I was in Binghamton. I don’t know why, because I had a really good time this trip. Unfortunately, it started with a cold (10 hours on a bus, no wonder), but I got over that in a couple days.

We went to my two favorite restaurants while we were there. 1st place: The Lost Dog Cafe. I’ve loved this place for years. The food has been organic since before that craze took over, and it’s 100% pure deliciousness. They have great combo’s that aren’t too pricey. At night, the place turns into more of a bar/coffee house with live music on occasion. 2nd place: Chat-a-while. This place is great for it’s desert. They have  a brownie fudge cake that tastes amazing! The actual meals are great as well, and healthy to boot!

We also went and visited family, who I enjoyed seeing and catching up with again.

Final pic from Times Square:

Last semester, for my International Marketing class, we did a marketing plan to introduce Edible Arrangements to Japan. After many trials, we pulled off an awesome presentation in November ‘08.

To the right, we have a group picture with our professor. All the women were wearing Yukata, and the the men dressed as Salary-men.

We all learned a lot from this presentation, including how to work in a group with multiple “leader” personalities. It makes a great deal of difference if you define each person’s role before beginning to work. We also learned that it is extremely helpful to have a master schedule of when people are available and due dates.

All in all, this was a great learning experience. It was great to work with such a smart group of individuals who had so many different skills to offer.