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I tried for a hot second to be vegan for the month of January (aka "Veganuary"). I didn't even last more than a day. Man, I'm weak this year!

Ah, spring...

When a young girl's heart turns to life beyond graduate school. The weather is (generally) so nice! I am turning in my final big paper tomorrow! Hence, I suppose, the urge to post.
I thought I'd do the ol' Instagram catch up game (assuming you don't already follow me on Instagram, but if you do, here's at least a bit more context). Some highlights from the past couple of weeks:

Easter weekend I got to spend my first Passover with Ari's family. His family always hosts Passover, but this year, it was an especially big reunion, since one of Ari's great-aunts turned 90 years old. So 73 family members were somehow squeezed into the living room/dining room area. In the picture below, the tables are set for only 50 (we had 50 the first night, and then 73 the second night).

 The special Seder plate with all the things you have to use at various times during the reading of the Haggadah. The only one I can still remember the significance of is the parsley, which represents spring and new life (but you dip the parsley in salt water to represent the tears of the Israelites, so it's not all fun and games). 

Then! A week later, we rented boats to row on the lake in Central Park. It was a nice day. Worth the 1 1/2 hour wait, I'd say.

 Ah, the rowing life.

We were with a few other Columbia friends (who out-rowed us by an embarrassing distance).

 We found a pretty cherry tree in Central Park (not captured too clearly in this shot, unfortunately).

 We also went to see the cherry trees at the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens, which were GORGEOUS.

 Ari waltzes down the aisle of cherry trees.

Then, last weekend, we actually got to EAT a cherry leaf at this super-fancy Japanese Shojin-style (i.e. Buddhist monk) restaurant called Kajitsu, which is all vegan. The dinner was thanks to a belated birthday gift from my parents; thanks M & D!

 After dinner, we went to this new bar on the main street near our apartment called 739 Franklin and just barely avoided getting caught in a downpour. We tried to wait out the rain for two rounds of drinks, but eventually we had to sprint home with our jackets over our heads. 

Finally, yesterday we went to a "Meet the Programmers" event at Film Forum, which is one of my favorite places in New York. I attend this theater virtually weekly; it's a pretty great way to start a film education.

 There were free HUGE croissants, which was a big draw for me. And attending this event made Ari and me realize that we are apparently the only members who are under 40 years old. Ah well.

That is all! I hope you enjoyed the photos, and that spring has been good to you thus far!

In one day (today), I ate ALMOST a whole loaf of challah bread. I decided to allow myself to enjoy non-vegan food till January, so I bought the challah (with egg in it).

And now it's 11:37pm and my stomach is STUFFED with bread.
It could be worse.

It's time to set a date

I haven't posted in a while because I've been overwhelmed with starting my job (working two hours a day. I still can't handle it!) and a lot of term papers coming up in the near future.

Luckily, I spent 6 hours yesterday finishing up my biggest project: a transcription and phonetic analysis of a native Chinese speaker's English. It's actually really interesting to me, and I'm sad it must go the way of so many school projects: loved the topic, but wish I'd had more time to spend on it.

Also, my title of "setting a date" refers to my goal to become vegan. Yes, folks, it's high time I took that step. All the cool kids are doing it (literally--it seems to be a hipster thing, but also CAMMY has been vegan for years now). So I'm trying to set a date for when it will happen. I'm thinking New Year's. That way, I can still pig out on sweets on Christmas and post-Christmas, but once the new year starts, it's purely vegan delights for me! Of which there are many, many, many in New York City. Thank goodness.

OK, back to making final edits on the paper. Hope everyone had a bonne week-end. (And I am too lazy to look up if that French is correct.)