"You asked me to write an essay telling you what I have to say. What I realized is that I have been ordered to listen from the moment I was born but now I know it's my time to speak. What I figured out is that I've always seen myself as others have seen me-- as the poor kid, as the smart kid, as the dreamer who doesn't have a chance. I've known the comfort of my mother's arms and the violence of my father's disappointment. But everyone encounters obstacles. The trick is to discover the opportunities within them. I've learned that everyday we create who we are by what we do and what we think and how we behave. So now that it's my time to speak, I just hope I have something to say. I'm going to set my expectations high, and one day I'll exceed them."

-- from young americans, pilot episode

Last Summer

My last summer is about to end. It was good overall. I worked at the hospital for some research. I realized how hard working 9-5 everday is! The trek downtown was about 40 minutes each way, At least the hospital was near Union Square, so there was interesting sights around. Research went well. Near the last day, there was a big make-your-own-sundae event for the staff to welcome the new president of the hospital. I pretended it was a celebration to bid farewell to me, with sprinkles.

I went to Boston for a bit. Hung around the Harvard Square and definitely caught up on Bollywood gossip! Good times!

Then we had our Week of Fun. A whirwind tour of the city in seven days. Actually, we didn't go all over the city, but we did go do touristy-things like go to Times Square where there was a Kiss-In to commemorate that famous photograph on a Time Magazine cover after WWII. We also went to the American Museum of the Moving Image, only the coolest museum to date. There's a lot of hands-on exhibits AND you can play DDR. It's free on Friday afternoons too! We also went through and got lost in Central Park, ran around the Museum of Natural History, plays a virtual soccer with some random girl in the South Street Seaport Mall, and did a few other things. I can't really describe it all, but I did make a music video of it with all our photos.

We cleaned up our apartment on campus. I even made a Wheel of Chores so that we don't have a repeat incident of last year's chaos. I think it will work out.