Follow the Cherry Blossoms / Mexico City / Queens

Sitting on the rooftop of my new place in LIC.

Last month was a blur.

Followed the cherry blossoms to DC

Went to Mexico City.

Moved out to Queens.

As I sit here with the Sun beating down on me in my perpetual semi sleep deprived state I wonder what the value is in writing all this out.

I had such a great writing cadence last year. Almost every Sunday I’d post something and reflect on the week before and all felt great.

Now with almost a month of life to recap since the last time I wrote it feels a bit forced(?).

The value of this blog as I imagined when I started

One day hopefully I grow old and withered like a raisin. I’ve become a distinguished gentleman with many fruitful ventures and experiences behind me. The weight of my memories have become too much for a single brain to handle and I’ve forgotten much of what I’ve done. I come back to this blog (which I’ll have kept up for years at that point) and reminisce about all the things I’ve experienced, the people I’ve been able to form bonds with.
OR someday they have AI tuned enough where we can replicate personalities based on large amounts of text. Someone trains that AI on this blog and LO AND BEHOLD there’s a digital version of me for all of humanity to enjoy for the eternity that awaits us

Both worthwhile goals. So I’ll keep on writing even though it feels a little forced.

Another point—my posts are split into two parts. Things I’ve experienced and thoughts I’ve thought. What will be more interesting to read in the future? I think I’m more interested in the latter. These days when I talk to people I don’t give a S H I T about the things they do. I care more about how they think and why they do what they do.

Oh you went to the club last night? I don’t care.

Oh you went to the club last night because you felt like you were growing uglier with age and wanted to hook up with someone for validation? Oh yeah now we’re cooking 👩‍🍳

I don’t think it’s possible to do things without motivation. But it is possible to have very lame motivations.

Cherry Blossoms in DC

Man where do I even start? It’s been almost a month since DC and so much has happened in between.

Lemme set up the scene at least. Two different groups converge in DC. Family and friends. I’m always a bit on edge when merging different groups. For the last few years I’ve kept many groups of my life siloed. Work friends. School friends. Family.

On the family side it was Harry (my brother) and Juwon (my cousin). On the friends side it was Will and Kelvin.

My anxiety was unfounded. We all ended up having a pretty great time.

Quick recap

Dinner at Chercher. My favorite Ethiopian restaurant (granted I know so little about Ethiopian food).
- Dinner here is a bit hard. Me, Harry, Will, Kelvin, Juwon all meeting for the first time in DC. Especially with Juwon there (she speaks very little English) it’s a bit awkward at first but gets better eventually

Drinks at Chicken + Whiskey. A really cool bar located in the back of a chicken shop. Imagine a Chipotle style restaurant with a full on bar in the back room
A great night at il Canale with Kelvin’s cousin and Shiv’s (another friend) sister joining us. Wine, pizza and calamari on.a rooftop right as day turns to night. As Kelvin always says: “Good vibes”
Can’t go to DC without visiting Tatte, my favorite bakery. Harry treats us :)

A trip to the Air and Space museum. I’m not into planes but the sheer scale of this impresses me. A huge hangar filled with almost every plane you can imagine.

Cherry blossoms too. We go at the tail end of the season so don’t experience that much…

Great mini trip. Had a blast. Confirmed that merging groups is not that bad and I was overly concerned as usual.

Mexico City

A few days later I fly out to Mexico City to meet up with Andrew and Apollo.

Thoughts before I went to Mexico City

It might be dangerous should I go?
Every time I go to Mexico (Cabo, Cancun) they call me Jackie Chan. Is that going to happen here too?

Thoughts after I went to Mexico City

B E A U T I F U L city
- Storefronts with beautiful designs
- A huge amazing park (Chapultepec) in the middle of the city as well as smaller ones peppered throughout the different neighborhoods

plaza de rio janeiro—a park inside roma norte I hung out at a lot my last few days here

Cheap!
- Meals were cheap
- Ubers were really cheap (2-5 dollars per ride)
- I forget exact prices but maybe 50-75% of what you’d pay in American cities
- Housing was cheap

chillin on the balcony at our first Airbnb. Right after the rain. Feeling the mist on my skin, birds chirping, vendors cycling down the street. Under the shade of the trees. What a feeling. Look how big my calves look too

view out of my airbnb’s bed last few days I was there. Paid ~50 a night

A surprising amount of diversity
- Saw a Koreatown there
- A bunch of Japanese, Chinese restaurants
  - Had an extremely mediocre okonomiyaki at one of these restaurants so I can’t vouch for the quality of Asian food in the city
- K Culture seems to have a foothold in the city. I saw a bunch of K pop posters while I was there
- We also had pizza while we were there. Pizza made by an Argentinian who had moved to Mexico City. Pretty good, pleasantly surprised.

Mexican kids have to deal with kumon too…

Nice dating scene
- Got a lot more matches while I was there. Everyone is so pretty 😍
- Went on a date with Dacia on my last day there. Tacos. Walking around Centro. Listening to music together. Had a great time :)
  - Used a translator app to communicate the first few messages but eventually found out she taught English so it was easier after that
  - Was a bit hesitant about going on the date because I had a flight at 7am the next morning but Justin gave me a pep talk and I’m glad I went
Amazing food
- Best tacos of my year. Had the best chicharron tacos of my life from Tacos Orinoco
- Fantastic bakery at Panaderia Rosetta
- Delicious chilaquiles at Chilpa
- Great cafe culture

Air quality is bad
A lot of investments in culture
- Great museums (which I wasn’t that into because they were in Spanish and my Spanish es un poco malo) and also I get museum fatigue easily.
A history of gentrification
- I am no expert on this but according to Carlos (Mexico City native that I know from choir) a lot has changed recently. Beautiful Condesa—with all its aesthetic restaurants and cafes—used to be”close to dilapidated.” He says he’s a fan though since his parents make a living by running Airbnbs and he “likes seeing pretty people all around” his neighborhood.
- I walked from the more gentrified areas (Condesa, Roma) towards Centro and the vibes definitely shift. Centro’s far more bustling. A lot less tourist friendly. Very few tourist faces.
Montezuma’s Revenge
- Montezuma was killed by the germs brought over by the Spaniards.
- His revenge is to infect all foreigners with stomach troubles once they visit Mexico
- All three of us had diarrhea 🤮
  - worth it though because the food was delicious

Overall Mexico City was a blast. Would definitely go again. Was able to meet up with Cahner (a friend I made traveling to Portugal last year) and her friend which was pretty cool. Great seeing Andrew and Apollo too.

Queens

Spent my first week back in NYC living in Sunnyside. Great neighborhood. Very diverse. Pleasant to walk through. The 7 train runs through it like a vein and gives life to all that it touches (it is very loud to walk under though…).

Some notable events since I came back

Walked from Sunnyside to Flushing with Saad and Chaitya
Watched Everything Everywhere All at Once with Will and Victoria
Did a mini Couchella concert at Kelvin’s place
Watched Eva Noblezada’s cabaret with Kelvin and some of his friends
Started Return to Office. Great being able to see all my work friends in person again.
Went to an ACN potluck with Millie. Millie and I were the only guests for about the first two hours. Had a great time though. The host (Heidi) was pretty interesting / nice to talk to.
Karaoke with Kelvin, Will, Millie, Jason and Nicole

Now I’ve settled into my new apartment. First apartment in almost a year. Good to have a place again.

excuse the mess but note the high ceilings :)

It’s a beautiful spot but it’s right by the train yard. I hear trains run through the night. Each one has a different flavor of noise to it

7 train bends on a curve and squeals every time it comes through like a lil piggie being GUTTED :(
Amtrak comes through like the kool aid man and loudly blares its horn to announce its arrival
A few of the other trains (yet to be identified) are a little more pleasant to listen to. No squeals, no honking just chugging along

My new strategy for sleeping here at night is earplugs with air purifier humming on blast to drown out the noise and so far it is working like a charm.

I’m happy to have my own home again and think it’ll be easier to advance in all my goals.

Being able to organize more hangouts and revamp my social life
Being able to bring a date home and watch the sun set from my balcony <3
Being able to practice piano / sing and produce music
We have a gym in the apartment so it’ll be easier to work out regularly too

It’ll be a great time.

Now that I’m settling in I no longer have the excuse that “I’m floating around”

I really want to build out my life here and stop being a floater.

I am tethered.