Hello, blog! Long time no update.
Since the last update, I've been a busy little bunny with homework. I also managed to take another trip to NYC which was pretty inopportune timing since a blizzard (which the Weather Channel dubbed "Nemo") was supposed to hit the Northeast. Oops. It's been years since I've dealt with a blizzard (and I use "dealt" loosely. I was holed up in my dorm room and didn't come out for days).
[DC Metro at 530am]
Last Friday, instead of taking my regular 730am bus, I decided to take the 630am Bolt Bus, which turned out to be a pretty terrible bus ride because:
1) The driver arrived late
2) The driver wasn't actually our "real" driver. We had to go to a different station to pick up the real driver. This is the 2nd or 3rd time this has happened on my Friday bus ride to NY.
3) The bus' mirrors could not de-fog properly so we had to wait at a truck stop for a replacement bus to come for us
4) The replacement bus' heaters weren't working that well. Everyone was still wearing full coat while inside the bus
By the time I got to NY, I was exhausted and cranky. It was already hailing by the time I arrived so I rushed it over to the apartment so that I could shower, eat lunch, and take a quick nap before doing homework and heading out for date night with K.
I managed to wake up in time to do a grocery run to stock up on supplies in case the blizzard would end up being worse than anticipated. Afterwards, we dressed up and got ready for Avenue Q, a show that we've been wanting to watch for so long but seemed doomed never to see. (Quick backstory: We purchased tickets years ago to this show and then the Broadway strike happened and they refunded our tickets. So that was that. Fast forward to this particular Friday and boom! A blizzard!)
[snowy sidewalks]
Fortunately, the blizzard wasn't too bad and the show managed to still go on. Avenue Q is hilarious and I'm really happy we finally got to see it after so long. We walked around Times Sq a little bit because we wanted to see it in its deserted, snow-capped glory, but it just turned out to be a really slushy affair. So we returned to K's apartment to enjoy some nice, spiked, hot chocolate with lots of marshmallows.
[lit up trees, so very pretty]
[baby, it's cold outside!]
[baileys + hot chocolate + milk + mallows]
On Saturday, we (The wombats, K, and the adopted "cousin") went off to the NoMad hotel to have some yummy brunch before heading upstate to Graham's ancestral home for a quick overnight. We had dinner with his parents at a lovely restaurant before a night of silly games (Uno and Catchphrase), shots of wine (tsk tsk), midnight snacks (chicken skin, donuts, cookies, and assorted junk food), and a cozy fireplace to warm us up from the ridiculous cold outside.
[the nomad hotel]
[the nomad hotel brunch]
[sunset train ride to garrison]
[dinner at cathryn's]
[warming up by the fireplace]
On Sunday, we had brunch before an afternoon of sledding (and homework on my end). The wombats went off to explore nooks and crannies of the house and to also pack some of Graham's stuff to take home. K left early to play football with his league. The rest of us stayed til about 6 before taking a train back to the city in time to enjoy Chinese New Year dinner with Ginger's friends.
[winter morning]
[sunday sledding collage]
[kahlua sunning herself]
[view from the backyard]
[blurry sunset]
[CNY dinner]
Monday was a blur of food and homework. The wombats and I had lunch with my friend, Rhea, who was in the States for school but was leaving to go back home now that she was done with her program. We had lunch at Maialino which was really hearty, flavorful Italian food. I spent the rest of the afternoon doing homework before meeting up with Karl and heading uptown to Social Eatz to have dinner with the same crew + Rhea's room mate + Carla, another friend from home. The food was mediocre but the company was great and we all traded really ridiculous stories (mostly crude ones) that had us all in stitches by the end of the night.
[some of the food we ordered]
[black truffle shavings on a spinach and ricotta ravioli w/ a single egg yolk]
Before long it was the end of my weekend and I had to head back to go to school for more of this:
[hot date w/ homework]
This week, I had to prepare for two oral presentations. The first was on the health belief model, which was developed in the 1950s by social psychologists as a means to figure out why people didn't want to participate in programs that dealt with the detection and prevention of illnesses. It's evolved into a 6-construct model and I had to link it up to some sort of real world application for communication practitioners. I decided to try to connect it with the controversial NY large soda ban (Mayor Bloomberg wants to ban soda in oversized containers from restaurants in an effort to curb obesity and its related diseases like diabetes). I also offered recommendations on how communicators can handle some of the challenges that arise from the barriers and the lack of susceptibility and severity that people in NY feel from it. I gave suggestions for cues to action as well.
The whole controversy seems to stem from the fact that the regulation was just framed improperly. The media refers to it as a soda ban, but it's not banning soda at all. It's just limiting the sizes of the containers the drinks come in. There is a sense of psychological reactance that is stemming from this controversy. People think that this move is a step towards "loss of freedom of choice." But honestly, there are so many different choices of (healthier) beverages out there to choose from. I do think it's a bit of an issue that they're not just taxing the oversized soda, or that they're not limiting the sale of other super-sugary drinks as well, but I guess Mayor Bloomberg has to fight one battle at a time (one bottle at a time)!
The second oral presentation was on persuasion. Similar to the presentation for the other class, I had to link up the reading concepts from this week's reading assignments to real world scenarios and takeaways that communication practitioners could use. The concepts I chose were scarcity, authority, and exclusivity and I linked these up with the NY restaurant scene. I explained that I was deeply passionate about this topic because I love to eat and I consider myself a foodie. I also believed that the NY food scene was a great study in irrational behavior. Where else would people be willing to line up for an hour and a half for a (Shake Shack) burger? Or pay $26 for a (Minetta Tavern) burger when you could get a similar (but admittedly not as delicious) one from McDonalds for a much lower price? Marketers must be doing something right if people are willing to do things like this. So that intro and a quick recap of the concepts was my little "appetizer." The "entree" was the actual meat of the presentation where I dove into 4 types of restaurants (pop-up, michelin starred, food trucks, speak easies) and linked them up to the reading concepts. "Dessert" was a summary of everything I covered plus some tactics and strategies. It was very lighthearted considering that the amazing presentation before mine was on Obama's SOTU and the "they deserve a vote" moving speech on gun policy.
I feel like I did pretty well on both but I'll only really know when my grade comes up.
Valentine's update to come after this weekend!
<3,
Tiffy
