alex.polvi.net

This is the largest single unit of beverage I have seen.

folks, yes, that’s a liter

I am holding it up like that so you can compare it to the size of my head.

The next big thing was McCarren Pool, Bloc Party’s venue.

that’s a big pool

Blurry photo time!!!

Bloc Party’s Kele Okereke

It was a little warm… but still a good time.

I’m over a week behind and the stuff keeps piling on. This is going to be a very rushed blog post, please don’t hate. Here we go.

Got some awesome cds from katrina, I think she is the first person to use my wish list (hint hint wink wink).

Sufjan Stevens and John Vanderslice

Then Fred visited from OSU

Google took us on this boat thing

Rux and Dri danced it up

Then the day went to Oregon

In Oregon I met up with most of my family to put my Uncle Al to rest. It was sad, but it was right. A lot of the family was there together… I’m very glad I went home.

RIP Kitty Pal!! I know I’ll never forget you!

From there I went to Corvallis.

Deck caught on fire, neighbors put it out… close one! Lucky nobody got hurt

We had a great BBQ. Good friends from the Corvallis crew all showed up. It was wonderful to be able to see those folks — made me realize how much I like Oregon!

Closing note:

Oregon mass transit is much more pretty than nyc

… as the bright red text reads on my drivers license.

The theme of this post is tradition.

Coney Island
What is the most traditional place in the world to celebrate a birthday!? A theme park, of course! A group of folks including Kim (Brandon), Rux (fellow intern), John (my host), Suzanne (co-worker) and some of her friends came along to the Siren Music Festival at Coney Island. I did not intend to go to a theme park for my birthday, it was just a venue, but it worked out.

Coney Island is known for it’s hot dogs and amusement rides (among other things). So, we made sure to check that stuff out.

Whee, I’m getting spun around and shot in the face with water! Ahh..

Ruxandra on top of the Wonder Wheel… we call her T-Rux for a reason.

Kim eating light/healthy at Nathan’s Famous (hotdogs)

Post-minor activities
Suzanne and I had a good conversation last night. She asked if I was excited about turning 21 in the city. See, I’m the sort of person that wants to experience all those traditional things. For that reason I really wanted to make sure I had a good time on my 21er. I ended up taking the option for the summer that put me in a completely new place, with zero friends, with no idea how I would celebrate. NYC complements all of that with an EXTREMELY robust nightlife.

Anyway, it worked out. The pictures can talk.

The wild Kimbo randomly decided to join the festivities. It was great to have such a close friend there!!

Steven and Eric enjoying fancy Belgium beer at a quiet bar (whispering only!! seriously!)

John, my host, and I seem to get along

Cake!
I live 3 blocks away from a cupcake store! A cupcake store!! They have those!!! For that reason I had a cupcake with Kim before she took off.

Mmmm

It tasted amazing!!!

Closing notes
I sort of feel like this is the last birthday that is worth noting. Not that I plan on passing away or anything, but the birthday era (0-21) of my life was satisfying. I’m sure I’ll have some awesome times in the future… after all, in theory I’ll be 21 most of my life.

Things always work out. One thing I was wondering about was what I going to do the actual night of the 16th. Well, it turns out that Steve’s parents are in town and want to take Eric and I out for dinner! Woohooo, I even get a birthday dinner! What more could I ask for?

Scavenger Hunt

The past two days have been nuts!! It all started yesterday (Thursday) around 1:30pm. Google arranged a “scavenger hunt” for interns. We got into teams and bounced around the city. We started at Bryant Park, moved to Grand Central, then wrapped things up at Rockefeller Center. Our team ended up getting 3rd (out of 8), not too shabby!

Ozomatli

Andriana and I decided it would be a great idea to join the Salsoogers (salsa dancing googlers, I made that up) for the Ozomatli concert.

This is a latin/hip-hop group that I had never heard of. The concert was pretty good, but it went FREAKING CRAZY when they got off the stage and played in the audience. First it was like, “OK, this is cool — they are walking through out the audience.” But then they stopped… RIGHT IN FRONT OF US.

No zoom, I was literally right under him

Then they made the entire crowd sit down!!

Everyone is sitting, that is why the girl in red is so tall

Danced hard, rocked hard. Wow. That was a good concert.

The rest of Thursday evening
We tried to meet up with some different co-workers for metal/punk-rock karaoke… but I got carded and they actually did the math correctly. The conversation went something like:

Bouncer: Holding my id “What day is it?”
Me: “…”
Bouncer: Looks at sheet
Andriana: “Comon, it’s like in 2 days”
Bouncer: “The police don’t care”

No worries, this will not be a problem in about 24 hours.

So then we went to an awesome Japanese restaurant instead! I taught the waiter how to say “vanilla”. After that Andriana and I wandered around the city and had a fantastic time just chilling out!

That was just yesterday

Today I finished up my first project at work, then headed out for the ops off site. We went to this neat restaurant near the river. The place was nice, but the food left a lot to be desired. It was located conveniently at the other end of 79th (where I live), so I was able to just walk home.

Tomorrow is the Siren Music Festival. The most exciting part is that Kim will be joining us!!!!

I’m sure there will be plenty of photos and stories from this weekend! Stay tuned!

Did I mention I’m having a lot of fun!?!?

Went to an Armin Van Buuren concert. It was outside, but covered, under the Brooklyn Bridge! nuts!! It was funny to see all the people with “Armin” shirts on… I didn’t realize he had such a following. We were talking to this one guy that had gotten up at 3am the morning before to so he could make it to the show. That’s dedication!!

Too bad I forgot my camera… However, this weekend I will not be forgetting my camera! As this weekend is my 21st birthday. Not only is it my birthday, it happens that there are 4 21ers happening this week. I’m putting together a bar crawl for Saturday night… should be crazy! Stay posted for more details.

Anyway, not much else to report. Sorry if this post let you down.

The irony ensued as Belle and Sebastian (a Scottish band) wished in Independence Day.

After that my Polish friends and I went down to South Shore to catch the fireworks.

Lots of people!

Poland!

… was the last thing I heard from the Swedish girl as she left my side at the Jose Gonzalez concert. She said something about having a messed up back and that she had go stretch out somewhere. Fair enough. I figured I had lost her, but she was just trying to be polite and lead me on (which is not all that polite). Then, around halfway through the set (about an hour later) she poked me. We chatted a bit more… but then I lost her again while everyone was exiting!! Oh well. Perhaps she was actually trying to avoid me.

ANYWAY, Jose Gonzalez is awesome.

Another blurry photo of a band you have not heard of

In other news… I went to the Statue of Liberty!

Google, Statue of Liberty, this sums up my summer

This was an adventure too. When I got there the line for tickets was about half a mile long, ending in the middle of Castle Clinton National Monument. Being an avid national park cancellation collector, I asked the guard if I could go into Castle Clinton to get my stamp and she let me through. Once inside, the lines for Statue of Liberty were much shorter. After about 10min of standing in line I was able to get a ticket. Then, after standing in that line, it was time to go stand in the line for the ferry. This time I walked straight to the end of the line and waited patiently… then I realized I was in the back of the ticket line!! It had wrapped all the way around the building. So, I asked where to go and was pointed in the correct direction. I walked right up to the gated area where the ferry bag checks started and was through in no time… however, right before I entered I looked back… it seems that I accidentally cut in front of about a 1000 people! I seriously did not mean to, but it happened.

Look! We get treated like cattle at the auction!

I was very impressed with the capitilization of the monuments.

Other then seeing the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, my favorite part was seeing the National Park Ranger on a segway.

Lets talk about goofy looking

Along with Liberty and Ellis Island, I also saw Grants tomb. They literally have him in a big black stone coffin. Sort of reminded me of Ho Chi Minh, except you could not see him.

So, yeah, that was Monday.