Things I Did In Schenectady

1. Visited my friend Liu Xin a.k.a Lucy Liu

On Sunday I drove upstate to see Lucy, my friend from Dalian, who is currently on a Fulbright teaching fellowship at Union College. The drive was beautiful and traffic-free, seeing as it was 8:15 on a Sunday. It's easy to become NYC-centric, but whenever I explore the rest of New York, I'm struck by how beautiful and awesome it is. And it was great to see Lucy, who was so instrumental in my having a wonderful year in China.

2. Ate in the cafeteria

Before we did anything, we ate brunch at one of the campus cafeterias. All the college kids were decked out in Union gear, lining up for food, and shouting about how drunk they were last night. "I totally blacked out." "Oh my God, you were soooo wasted." I was unimpressed. There's nothing more boring to me than hearing how drunk someone was the night before, unless they did something interesting while drunk, like get into a fight or steal a boat. That said, the food was pretty good.

3. Checked out the campus

Union is small, pretty, and quiet, especially on a Sunday.

4. Saw some great art

After walking around and doing some cartwheels, we checked out the Nott Memorial, a beautiful and bizarre dome in the middle of campus. The building housed an art exhibit called Critical Stitch, which "engages and critiques a gamut of social, cultural, and political issues using needlecraft." I loved it. This one is called PMS Quilt:

Thank You X7

Christopher Dodd

5. Explored the Stockade Historic District

Schenectady is like many cities and towns in upstate New York, in that you can drive around and see what it must have been like when it was in full swing, maybe eighty years ago, but is now in a period of stagnation and decline. While I certainly don't want to romanticize joblessness and poverty, there is always something eerie and magical about empty, ghost-town Main Streets that appear to be stuck in time. (Too late! Romanticized!)

That being said, Schenectady has a well-preserved and interesting historic district, which was fun to explore.

6. Played school

7. Went ice-skating

I'm a terrible ice skater, but I forgot how much I love it. It's hard to find cheap places to skate in New York, but there are a few in Flushing and Long Island City, if anyone wants to go with me this winter.

8. Shopped at the Asian Market

Mark, Lucy's friend, drove us to an Asian grocery store in Albany, which had a variety of great offerings, from Tsingtao beer to Pocky sticks to cabbage to frozen dumplings.

9. Made hot pot

We picked up some hot pot ingredients, which we took back to Mark's apartment in Amsterdam. It brought me back to China, which felt great, since we often went out to hot pot for special occasions throughout the year. My plan is to try to do it at home one night, but no guarantees that I'll actually get my act together enough to go through with it.

10. Drove home

By the time we had eaten our hearts out, it was close to 9 pm. I chugged a Diet Coke (I'm pretty hardcore) and began my 3-hour journey home, which was powered by Fever to Tell by The Yeah Yeah Yeahs and a jumbled mix CD I made. It had some good songs on it, but I found myself blasting "Total Eclipse of the Heart" on repeat whenever I started to fade. All in all, a wonderful trip. 谢谢纽约, 谢谢 刘鑫, 谢谢80's的音乐!