a history of me

I just got in from a day trip to NYC to see the Yankees play the Blue Jays at the Stadium. We (Kazu, Koo*, Jung-un* and myself) left early this morning in order to make the 1:05 scheduled start via a Metro-North/subway connection. It was a pretty big deal for my foreign friends as they'll all be leaving the U.S. soon and they really wanted to catch a Yankee game before they left. We met up with my sister Salena (just back from France) at the gate. It was raining but not very heavily. They wisely decided to wait an hour before starting the game, allowing the rain to all but die out. We weren't bothered by the moisture as our seats were all the way at the top: Tier Reserved, Row X. Having seen a few games from this vantage point I'm starting to prefer it. Not only do you get a very good view of the entire field, you have a roof over your head and no one sits behind/on top of you.

A quick recap of the game can be found here. What you won't read about was the big fan turnout for the major-league debut of 王建民 (a.k.a. Chien-Ming Wang). There were scores of fans with signs, banners, even Taiwanese flags. I'm always fascinated by organized fans. Who gathered them all? Are they actually family or just fellow natives? Where the hell did they get professional signs with Chinese on them?

After the game Salena went back to Manhattan while the four of us went back to Westchester. We met up with a few of my hometown friends for a delightful dinner at Squire's in Briarcliff. I could have sworn I blogged about that restaurant before, but I couldn't find any posts in the archive. Anyway, they serve de-li-ci-ous burgers (and the like) that hit the spot. I eat a lot of "burgers" here at school but they are merely burnt silvers of meat that are shamefully masquerading as such. Squire's has the real deal, and recently they've been serving the fabled Kobe beef to boot. I was pleasantly surprised at how well everyone got along. Kazu seemed to find delight in how well I got along with my friends. He sees me here at school where I am always teetering on the brink of despair (especially these past few weeks) so I think he enjoyed seeing me happy for a change.

After dinner we made the long trip back to Albany, and here I am. Still happy, I guess, for now.

*I'm not sure how to properly Romanize their names, sorry!