A View from the Bridge

Before anything else, I have to say that I saw Scarlett Johansson today :)

Scarllet and Liev Schreiber (pictures below for those of you not connecting the names with the faces) are performing on Broadway with the play "A View From the Bridge" from American playwright Arthur Miller.
The play is about life of a family in an immigrant neighborhood in New York, and depicts the drama of that family when their orphaned niece decides to get married to an Italian illegal immigrant.
It is an interesting play and I think my mother would have liked it because it is very similar to the plays and immigrant themes she used to teach in school.
I have to say that I preferred Liev's performance than Scarlett's...but it's her Broadway debut, so let's not be too hard on her.

Liev Schrieber

Scarlett Johansson

Spring is here!

I know that during the last year and a half I have always announce when the first snow fell in New York.
Now, it is only fair to also announce that Spring is here.
Since I came back from my Spring Break Holidays (I will post about that soon, once I have time to download the pictures from my camera) the weather in NY has been great. The temperature during the day has been around 15C, and the sun has been shining.

It is really important to note that this is an important event.
For those of you living in temperate places, like Portugal, this may not seem very obvious (it wasn't for me in the past) but 3/4 months of extremely cold weather really suck! And when good weather comes, wow, everyone seems to react to it and become happier and more friendly. I notice it on myself too!

Thanks Spring!

Trip up to Killington

Last weekend I went with my cluster (cluster E) to Killington, Vermont, for a weekend of skiing.
For those of you who remember, we also went there last year, and it was a memorable weekend.

This time, although the expectations were high, we also had a blast.
Nothing better than 30 people in a chalet for a weekend, eating, drinking, singing, hot tubbing, and of course skiing.
I don't have pictures from the weekend (forgot my camera), so this event will have no image memories.

On the way up to Killington (its a 5 hour drive from NY) I went with Jeff, Gal, Ross and Susan. Jeff did all the driving up to Killington. The last time we planned to stop, we used the restroom of the gas station, bought some snacks and Jeff filled up the tank. However, when returning from the shop, Jeff had the car keys in his jacket and put the jacket in the trunk, while the car was still locked, and closed the trunk.
Yes, it sounds ridiculous, but we got locked out of the car!! For one hour.

It took one hour to get assistance from AAA and get us inside the car again. And I have to say that the process of opening a locked car is not easy and requires a lot of skill. The funny thing was that the assistance was actually an old couple who managed to do the task quite well.

During the hour we were waiting, we were going in and out of the shop, and Ross, who was wearing a very think jacket, managed to knock a 6-pack of Smirnoff Ice and break the bottles. For those of you who have seen the episode, it was very much like when George Constanza bought his Gore-Tex jacket.

Before the old couple hired by AAA arrived, a passing driver tried to open the car with a wire coat hanger...it didn't work

Jeff also tried to help him (he's trying to widen the opening with a knife)


The saviors didn't arrive in a white horse, but in a black pick-up.

The old couple, with a lot of patience, saving our night

Chinese New Year

Today is a new year for the Chinese and other Asian nations that follow the lunar calendar. For the Chinese the year of the Tiger just started, and it is believed to bring with it heroic and mythical powers.

Jeff and Steff invited some of us over yesterday to their place to celebrate New Year's eve and eat a lot of Chinese delicacies.
Tradition says that you should wear red (Jane obviously decided to ignore tradition)

The hosts (Jeff and Steph)

PA night out

After a successful week of Orientation in January, the PA group went out on Friday for a fun night out.

It started with a nice dinner at Sol y Sombra, a Mexican restaurant on Amsterdam Avenue and 82nd street.






Dinner was followed by karaoke in Korea Town.

Snowstorm

"A powerful snowstorm, the second to sweep across the Northeast in less than a week, arrived in the New York area on Wednesday morning, closing schools, courts and the United Nations and threatening to play havoc with the rhythms and routines of those who did not simply stay home."
NY Times

It was supposed to have come last Saturday, but it didn't reach Manhattan. However today it was for real. This was the view from my window this morning:




Times Square this morning:


Around noon the University announced that they would close for the rest of the afternoon due to the snowstorm. At 3pm some of us gathered outside for a snowfight:


My street at night:


Columbia University Campus at night:

Superbowl 2010

Last night was Superbowl night.
The Superbowl is the championship final game for American Football (NFL).

This year the finalists were the New Orleans Saints and the Indianapolis Colts, and the Saints ended up winning.

One of the most interesting things about the Superbowl is that every American gets together with friends (not matter if you support, or not, the teams that are playing) to watch the game. It is a really important American tradition.
Mike Krafft was kind enough to host us at his apartment for this year's game.
Here are some pictures.

Mike Krafft, the host

Brett doing a pose a la Mike Krafft

Everyone doing a pose a la Mike Krafft

The only serious football watchers in the house

Ross, what is that wet stuff on your pants?

The actual game on TV

Jeff and Susan decided to dress to match

Stopped by the police

Last Friday I was stopped by the police (NYPD).

I was coming from having some birthday drinks with my friend Rui Silva (who is doing his MBA at NYU) and it was already 2am when I arrived at the subway station of the A train on 125th street. As it was late, cold and I wanted badly to get home, I decided to run from the station home. It's a distance of around street 7/8 blocks. I also thought it was a good safety measure because the area around the 125th street station is not the safest (it's the heart of the Harlem).
So I ran!!!

Of course it was weird to see a white guy running in jeans, winter jacket and dress shoes at 2am in that area. Within the first 100 meters, a bad looking guy on the street said something to me that I couldn't understand. However, the best part was that after two blocks, there was already a police car coming after me with the sirens on.

I stopped.

They asked me if there was anything wrong. I thought to myself "Will they believe that I am just running home....that will sound weird". However, I really didn't have any alternative, I just said I was running home because I really wanted to get there fast :) They probably thought I was crazy...

After we ended the conversation, they still stayed there, and I was thinking if I should just walk home, or keep running.

I decided to be consistent.
I kept running :)

A Night at the Opera

Last Saturday I went to the Opera.

The first time I went to the Opera was in Lisbon, with some friends from McKinsey, and we went to see Madame Butterfly (Puccini) at the Coliseu de Lisboa. It was nice, but not too spectacular.

Last Saturday, however, it blew me away. The Opera was Turandot (also from Puccini) and there were a couple of things that made me love it.
First of all the production was really impressive. It was the New York Metropolitan Opera, and they really have great singers/performers, beautiful costumes and, most of all, the scenarios were magnificent.
In addition the music of the opera is also good, especially the opening of Act III with the classic Nessun Dorma (if you want to see and hear this beautiful song, go to the end of this post where I put a memorable Pavarotti's rendition of the song in LA in 1994, it is really worth watching it).
Last, the seats I got were amazing, the best in the house. I was in the first row of the Met Opera at the Lincoln Center. I didn't buy the tickets for the first row, though...too expensive. They were offered by Paul M. Montrone who is a Board Member of Columbia Business School and of the Met Opera. My big thank you to him!
The story is also very nice, and for those of you interested in it please check the synopsis on this website: http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/history/stories/synopsis.aspx?id=26





Pavarotti - Nessun Dorma from Turandot