me.

Yes, first term sophomore year can be (and for me, was) tough. With the exception of black friday, I pretty much worked on sets/studied/graded everyday, including weekends. Now, with a third of the pain that is sophomore year behind me, I guess it was time for a well deserved vacation.

The Eurodam. So my family decided to go on a cruise. Well, since we had already planned the trip well in advance, there wasn’t much surprise; I, however, definitely looked forward to it. We took one of the dam ships run by Holland America Line and sailed away on a voyage to the caribbean… (after an exhausting drive to Fort Lauderdale over two days)

Initial impressions. It probably was a good thing I read up on reviews of HAL, since the first big surprise for me was that a significant portion of the patrons were seniors. No, the scene wasn’t like a retirement home, but it certainly wasn’t like those Carnival commercials on TV either. Maybe it’s an upside that there weren’t many rowdy kids around. Nonetheless, it seemed like everyone was energetic and ready to have a good time—I know I was. The ship itself was very posh, with grand living spaces and walkways surrounded by various artwork, and the atmosphere projected that of class—even the dress code seemed rather conservative. The evening dress was either smart casual: collared shirt and slacks, or formal: jacket, shirt, tie, …the works; many went as so far to wear tuxes on formal nights.

The ship interior. The Eurodam’s plan is HAL’s Signature class layout, which put public areas on the 2nd, 3rd, 9th, and 11th decks. Bars were located all throughout the public decks, which really made me wonder about the amount that cruisers drank; the average distance to alcohol was probably within 10-20 steps from anywhere on the deck. The ship also sported many lounges and common areas one would expect to find: a stage, a cafe, a casino, pools, etc. It’s nothing amazing, though they all were lavishly furnished. My stateroom was more roomy than I expected, but then again, I barely spent any time there during the day.

There wasn’t one particular spot I liked hanging around, but I did often trek up to the top decks for a nice view of the ocean. It felt nice to just sit in the 80 degree weather, under the sun, with a nice breeze blowing by. I also lounged around the lido decks during the day, whenever good food and music was available. For the most part, however, I was on land exploring the different ports we visited.

Services. A crew of primarily Indonesians and Filipinos staffed the ship—they were very hospitable, and always greeted us with a smile. At some point, you had to wonder if they really enjoyed their job or not—but to me, it looked like they were having a blast. The cabin stewards and dining room stewards were especially friendly, since we saw them on a daily basis. Towards the end of our cruise, they even remembered our specific preferences.

The food was pretty good. I initially thought the selection, style, and presentation was superb, but as time went on, it became pretty clear that the chefs could only do so much with the raw materials onboard. I can’t blame them for not preparing a more varied meal, but after a while, all the meals started to look the same. I might be biased, though, since I started to crave authentic asian cuisine at one point, so none of the western dishes really appealed to me. I did, however, quite enjoy the seafood (king crab, lobster tail) on two of the nights.

The music on the ship was a big highlight for me. HAL staffed several groups of musicians who played different genres of music throughout the day. The selection included a string quartet playing classical, a smooth jazz group, and the house band, the HALCats. After a tiring day on land, just sitting and listening to live music took away all the soreness of travel. I think it’s been one of my aspirations to be able to read and improvise music well, so the talents aboard the Eurodam undeniably satisfied my taste for such live performances.

The ship also included a crew of photographers documenting basically every step of the guests; they waited on the gangway at every port, came around to all the tables during both formal dinners, and had multiple portrait stations setup on the lower three decks. Our family took quite a few photos, many of which actually turned out to look really good. However, the price point was a bit steep, so we were on the edge when deciding to purchase the package. Ultimately, poor service had us returning the photos we had previously decided to buy. There was a separate photography opportunity for special JC Black Label photos by a “master artist” as well, where we had several black and white (well grayscale, technically) photos taken. Although the quality of the photos were fantastic, there was no way we were going to buy anything at the price point ($300/photo, or $1499/10 photos) HAL offered.

Activities. On the ship, the primary event of each evening was a one hour performance on the main stage. The acts varied from magic and comedy to a full on “Las Vegas” style production. They were all quite entertaining, but I especially enjoyed the Broadway musical numbers one night, since they just so happened to feature a few tunes from the “not so well known” musical Jekyll & Hyde (for which I played the keyboard in my high school’s production).

Still, the majority of the days were spent in the many ports of call in the caribbean.

Half Moon Cay. Well Half Moon Cay isn’t really a bustling port, since the entire island (wholly leased by HAL) is uncommercialized. I was genuinely looking forward to relaxing on pristine white beaches, and swimming/snorkeling in the “clearest waters” we would see. Disappointingly, the weather (high winds, waves) didn’t cooperate, so we spent an additional day at sea.

St. Thomas. I didn’t really like St. Thomas. It appeared as if the only three streams of revenue sustaining the economy on this U.S. Virgin Island was taxi fares, jewelry shopping, and tour guides.

• Since the terrain was mountainous, some sort of automobile transportation was essentially required to get from point A to point B. The monopoly/oligopoly (I wasn’t sure if there were multiple taxi vendors) set the cab fares at pretty ridiculous rates, not to mention the myriad drivers on the streets soliciting rides and/or “tours” of the islands.
• The only shops on main street were for jewelry, be it diamonds, tanzanite, ammonite, watches, etc. Were we interested? Not in the least, so exploring downtown was out of the picture.
• Perhaps the most significant event that left a bad taste in my mouth was being harassed by an American tour guide at Blackbeard’s castle. Originally, our plans were to just walk around the famous (?) 99 steps and snap some photographs. We were met by a tour guide who insisted that the 99 steps were “private property” (a blatant lie), and threatened to have us arrested for trespassing. When it seemed like his remarks wouldn’t deter us, he muttered (well maybe not muttered, since it almost sounded like a yell) something along the lines of “wow, tourists are so cheap during the holidays.” What a douche.

We did, however, enjoy snorkeling at Coki beach for the small time that the weather was nice. The schools of fish were a nice treat.

St. Martin. This little Dutch/French island was much more enjoyable. We went straight for the beach, and spent quite a few hours laying in the sun. The rather large waves made it impossible to swim per say, but playing in the waves was equally relaxing.

San Juan. I liked the capital of Puerto Rico; the city was very walkable and appeared rather charming. We visited two forts, now historical property of the U.S. National Park Service: Fort San Felipe del Morro and Castillo de San Cristóbal. Both were on the coastline and offered gorgeous views of the ocean. Because we hadn’t planned on doing much else during the day, we had all the time in the world to linger, wonder, and see all the natural beauty of the scene.

Nassau. The main attraction in the capital of the Bahamas was actually located on a nearby isle called “Paradise Island.” Every inch of the Atlantis Hotel spelled opulence, from the main lobby, to the casino, to the shops, and so forth. We wondered around the premise, but decided not to buy tickets for any of the attractions. After all, there are plenty of aquariums and water parks in other parts of the country.

Back to the grind. So after 8 days of doing something new and different (which I guess could be considered relaxing from the usual stress of life), I have just under a week before classes begin again. Was the experience of my first cruise worth it? Absolutely. Visiting the various parts of the world, along with the adventures at each location, was exciting and fresh. Does it get tiring? After a while, yes; by the end of the trip, I was simply ready to lay down in bed and snooze the day away. Maybe this means I won’t be looking to getting on a cruise ship within the next year, but I surely will want to at some point in the future.

There’s no better feeling than the satisfaction of going home at the end of the day (or weekend) and saying: wow, I really had a great time. That’s exactly how I would describe my trip to New York this past weekend. As a college student (rising sophomore, in fact), I’ve begun to take advantage of my independence to plan various activities and trips. For me, there’s nothing better than a well designed and executed schedule of events—and I guess I can take pride in the fact that every single outing has gone perfectly. I had a great time during the school year at places like Santa Monica, The Tonight Show, and San Diego, and it really makes me happy to say that New York is no different.

My entire visit consisted of a four hour bus ride on Friday night, staying at Conan’s apartment for two nights, and another four hour bus ride home on Sunday night. Of course, I didn’t travel alone—Paul came along for the adventure as well. The weather was nice and sunny, although it was a bit on the warm and humid side. Conan’s apartment was also very accommodating—there were several couches on which Paul and I could sleep. Other than snoozing the night (and half of the morning) away, we spent the majority of our time walking the city.

First impressions. Having been to New York City once before (and vaguely remembering that I didn’t particularly enjoy the atmosphere), I came into the city not expecting the best conditions. The anticipation became somewhat of a self fulfilling prophecy as dimly lit narrow streets came into view—the scene wasn’t appealing at all. However, the situation rectified itself as I quickly realized that the bus windows were tinted; I stepped off the bus into the “bright lights” of NYC and took in the environment. Maybe things won’t be so bad after all.

One of the things by which I like to evaluate a city is the public transportation system. For instance, I really like Boston and the T (generally clean, timely, and fairly extensive); it takes me where I want to go without much hassle. On the other hand, Los Angeles’s Metro isn’t as nice or convenient. For New York, here are my observations from my arrival:

• Expensive. Before getting on the subway, we obviously had to purchase tickets. The first thing that jumped out at my were the costs—$2.25 for a single ride, and $27 for a week! Compare that with $1.75/$15 for the T. I originally intended to grab a week pass, but opted for buying individual rides instead.
• Complex. I think it took Paul and I ten minutes to figure out the system map—a series of lines imposed on top of a map of Manhattan. All (or most) of the stations were named after their respective intersections, which didn’t make for great memorization either. But then again, Boston is smaller, so it’s probably easier to get to know everything.
• Large. I had gotten so used to the Green Line T stops that I completely failed to foresee the possible sizes of the stations—I think just about every stop we used was more than twice the size of Park St. I can’t categorize this as positive or negative, but it really goes to show how extensive the public transportation system is here.
• Decent. To both Paul and my surprise, the subway was actually fairly clean.

Of course, New York being the financial capital of the world, my suppositions probably should have been set higher. We hopped off around midtown, and walked 5-6 blocks to Conan’s apartment at roughly 10 pm. The streets were reasonably clean, and we felt fairly secure walking down the streets and avenues. The methodology by which the streets are named actually made it really easy to reach our destination. Everything up to this point has exceeded my expectations.

Phantom of the Opera. After meeting up with Saurabh, Nicky +friends, and having some nice dim sum in Chinatown for lunch, we enjoyed our first major event of the weekend on Saturday. Now I’ve seen the movie and even played the scores, but watching Phantom live is really an experience all on its own. The technical production was simply amazing—everything from the chandelier to the dungeon and all the transitions in between conveyed a sense of realism that put the audience in the scene. The music speaks for itself—I found it even more enjoyable than the recording. There were even certain parts that gave me goosebumps! Needless to say, it’s not surprising that Phantom of the Opera is the longest running show on broadway.

200 West. Though not originally in our plans, Saurabh (who’s interning at Goldman Sachs) showed us around the company headquarters at 200 West St. It was really cool to see the offices of one of the well known (or infamous, depending on who you ask) investment banking firms in the nation. We visited the trading floor and gawked at the banks of computers (each with 4-6 monitors!) lined across the room; digital clocks hung down from the ceiling to signal the beginning and end of the trading day. All in all, the scene bore an eerie resemblance to one particular scene in the movie Wall Street. Saurabh’s office was even higher in the 43 story building, and carried a gorgeous view of the surrounding city and Hudson river. I think ground zero was also visible from that perspective.

While I had never considered finance as a career (unlike Conan, who walked around with a look of awe), the environment really impressed me. The facilities were understandably clean and new, but even on top of that, all the workspaces and rooms were incredibly organized, giving a very professional appearance. For me, working in such an office would be sensational.

Night life. Traveling with a friend from high school and visiting friends from college means that I get to see two sides of the story. On Saturday night, Paul and I experienced a few hours of the New York night life by meeting up with Di Fu, an old high school friend. We had snacks at a Japanese restaurant and chatted our way until two in the morning. The waitress didn’t even card us when Paul and Di ordered cocktails. Apparently, 2 is even early, since there were still crowds of people on the streets. As a student who’s used to staying up late, this scene felt much more lively and comfortable than the silence of Pasadena past 9 pm.

We stopped by the 5th Avenue Apple Store en-route back to the apartment—who knew it was open 24/7?

5th Avenue and Rockefeller Center. Seeing televised or filmed landmarks in real life always fills me with a sense of enchantment and fascination, which is why I went to see The Tonight Show, and still want to see The Late Late Show. Sunday afternoon, I loaded up on the feeling of wonder as we walked down 5th Avenue past various shops and landmarks. My head turned left and right as we went by Trump Tower, the Empire State Building, and 30 Rock. The area was really nice compared with the rest of the city, which I guess shouldn’t be surprising since it’s deemed the most expensive street in the world. We also dropped by Times Square for a bit both after Phantom and on Sunday. As usual (or so I would think), the place was jam packed with tourists, making it difficult to walk.

Inception. Watching Inception at the AMC Empire 25 was our last stop before embarking on our journey home. Since Inception isn’t unique to New York, I won’t say much other than that it was a very original and intriguing film. I might watch it again sometime for the details.

Final thoughts. I have to say I really enjoyed my New York trip. I walked (or rode) away with a generally positive impression—the city is definitely more “livable” than I originally imagined. The sheer number of attractions and events also make it very appealing to young folk like myself. That being said, I still consider Boston a much more comfortable city in which to live. New York, however, has certainly earned a place in my heart.