I've met a lot of people these past two weeks, and was going to go out with two of my new friends, a Ghanian and a German. They wanted to go to lower east side, so I looked up a bar that I had never been to. I saw reviews for a speakeasy called Attaboy on yelp, but as I zoomed in on Google maps, I saw another bar nearby called Ghost. The name appealed to me, so I checked out their website, and their tag line was, "where souls meet." I liked that, so we decided to meet there.
My friends ended up missing their bus and running late, so I anticipated sitting by myself for 30 minutes, with my cell phone, but it turned out the people inside the bar and the bartender were very friendly, so I was entertained by them. Ghost is a cocktail bar, and actually is now one of my favorite bars. The bartender, Stevie, will ask you what you like, and invent a cocktail for you. They do have a standard list of interesting cocktails as well. Stevie asked me to name some flavors that I liked, and I said, "I like things that taste like flowers." Maybe the name Ghost made me think of my rabbit Flora, who used to eat rose petals.
"I have the perfect drink for you," Stevie said. It turned out to be pink, and flavored with Rose syrup and anise, with a red rose petal floating in the glass. It actually turned out to be one of the best cocktails that I have had, though a bit sweeter than I would have liked. I tried to eat the rose petal, but it tasted pretty bad; I guess that's more for rabbits, not humans.
My friends and I went to Home Sweet Home, a dance club underground. It plays very old music, which I didn't like, but I could see it appealing to a niche clientele. It was mostly swing dancing music.
The next day, I went to a Thai restaurant called Lan Larb, which I would highly recommend. Larb apparently means chopped (or maybe chopped meat), so most of their dishes featured chopped and stir fried meat, in addition to the usual Thai fare. For dessert, their green sticky rice with ice cream was really good. Later that night, I went to a birthday party with a new friend that I met on the bus from New York to DC, who also happened to be on the same bus back from DC to New York.
An interesting thing that he said was that he wanted to "get used to being rejected," because if you never get rejected, it means that you aren't reaching high enough. Thus, if you are too afraid of being rejected, you tend to aim too low, and by overcoming a fear of being rejected, you force yourself to push to new goals. I think this probably applies to a lot of things. Given the poor job market for human rights law, I definitely got rejected many, many, many times before finding work at the UN, and presumably will be rejected many more times as my career unfolds. I think those words helped me feel better, and be a bit more optimistic about trying to move forward.
The birthday party was at a bar called Subject, another cocktail bar in LES. It was a lot more crowded than Ghost was, and also pretty good, but not so memorable.
Here are some photos for my weekend in DC; we went to a winery, and an Easter event with a bunch of little kids. My best friend's colleague has a baby who is half Asian. Her father is Korean and the mother is European-American, and the baby has Asian features, but is blond with light blue eyes. I was able to tell she was half Asian because of her eyes and lips, but a lot of people can't tell because of her coloring. One really interesting thing about working at the UN is the families--for many who work for the UN, they do so because they are curious about the world, including foreign countries, so it's not a surprise that there are a lot of interracial marriages or partnerships. My office is a few floors above the daycare, so we see a lot of children who have parents from different backgrounds. Of all of the places that I have worked, it's not a surprise that I find the UN the most open minded, and one of the most accepting.
I went to see an exhibit there recently, of a piece of artwork that was painted by Israeli and Palestinian parents who lost children during the conflict there. They united to advocate for peace, and painted a mural. I imagine that many in that situation would, instead of advocating for peace, want to kill or punish the "others" who they held responsible for their child's death. It must take a lot of courage to come to embrace your so-called enemy. I luckily have not been in that situation, but I saw the artwork with a friend, and she had said that in similar situations, families were simply exhausted, and didn't want to fight anymore. War after all, won't bring back any of the people who have been lost. The mural is temporarily on display in front of the conference rooms at the UN, though it's not accessible to the public. Photos of the exhibit, along with photos of the winery in Virginia, are below.
My friends ended up missing their bus and running late, so I anticipated sitting by myself for 30 minutes, with my cell phone, but it turned out the people inside the bar and the bartender were very friendly, so I was entertained by them. Ghost is a cocktail bar, and actually is now one of my favorite bars. The bartender, Stevie, will ask you what you like, and invent a cocktail for you. They do have a standard list of interesting cocktails as well. Stevie asked me to name some flavors that I liked, and I said, "I like things that taste like flowers." Maybe the name Ghost made me think of my rabbit Flora, who used to eat rose petals.
"I have the perfect drink for you," Stevie said. It turned out to be pink, and flavored with Rose syrup and anise, with a red rose petal floating in the glass. It actually turned out to be one of the best cocktails that I have had, though a bit sweeter than I would have liked. I tried to eat the rose petal, but it tasted pretty bad; I guess that's more for rabbits, not humans.
My friends and I went to Home Sweet Home, a dance club underground. It plays very old music, which I didn't like, but I could see it appealing to a niche clientele. It was mostly swing dancing music.
The next day, I went to a Thai restaurant called Lan Larb, which I would highly recommend. Larb apparently means chopped (or maybe chopped meat), so most of their dishes featured chopped and stir fried meat, in addition to the usual Thai fare. For dessert, their green sticky rice with ice cream was really good. Later that night, I went to a birthday party with a new friend that I met on the bus from New York to DC, who also happened to be on the same bus back from DC to New York.
An interesting thing that he said was that he wanted to "get used to being rejected," because if you never get rejected, it means that you aren't reaching high enough. Thus, if you are too afraid of being rejected, you tend to aim too low, and by overcoming a fear of being rejected, you force yourself to push to new goals. I think this probably applies to a lot of things. Given the poor job market for human rights law, I definitely got rejected many, many, many times before finding work at the UN, and presumably will be rejected many more times as my career unfolds. I think those words helped me feel better, and be a bit more optimistic about trying to move forward.
The birthday party was at a bar called Subject, another cocktail bar in LES. It was a lot more crowded than Ghost was, and also pretty good, but not so memorable.
Here are some photos for my weekend in DC; we went to a winery, and an Easter event with a bunch of little kids. My best friend's colleague has a baby who is half Asian. Her father is Korean and the mother is European-American, and the baby has Asian features, but is blond with light blue eyes. I was able to tell she was half Asian because of her eyes and lips, but a lot of people can't tell because of her coloring. One really interesting thing about working at the UN is the families--for many who work for the UN, they do so because they are curious about the world, including foreign countries, so it's not a surprise that there are a lot of interracial marriages or partnerships. My office is a few floors above the daycare, so we see a lot of children who have parents from different backgrounds. Of all of the places that I have worked, it's not a surprise that I find the UN the most open minded, and one of the most accepting.
I went to see an exhibit there recently, of a piece of artwork that was painted by Israeli and Palestinian parents who lost children during the conflict there. They united to advocate for peace, and painted a mural. I imagine that many in that situation would, instead of advocating for peace, want to kill or punish the "others" who they held responsible for their child's death. It must take a lot of courage to come to embrace your so-called enemy. I luckily have not been in that situation, but I saw the artwork with a friend, and she had said that in similar situations, families were simply exhausted, and didn't want to fight anymore. War after all, won't bring back any of the people who have been lost. The mural is temporarily on display in front of the conference rooms at the UN, though it's not accessible to the public. Photos of the exhibit, along with photos of the winery in Virginia, are below.
No comments:
Post a Comment