Ann Arbor

Goodbye Ann Arbor-- I am going to miss you.

Ann Arbor is the perfect college town. If there were two words to describe it, they would be: eccentric and quaint. Central campus is a like a diamond shaped area, with the university buildings surrounding a vast green space in which students congregate for causes or just to socialize. There are quirky coffee shops, not just your usual Starbucks, and about 30-some pubs and lounges. There is something for everyone, from the broke college student to the hipster to the posh-loving connoisseur of wines. The shopping is amazing. Ann Arbor is full of sometimes hidden boutiques that import their clothing from the east coast, like L.A.. There are cheap vintage and thrift stores for those watching their wallets. Beware those watching their diets though, Ann Arbor is full of tastiness. Within a one mile radius of my current location (Ann st between Division and State) there are probably over 10 different cuisines available: Thai, Korean, Japanese, Italian, Polish, Jewish, Greek, American, Cuban, Chinese, Ethiopian, French and probably more that I am not recalling at the moment. To put it lightly, Ann Arbor is the ideal place to live!

Fun fact: Ann Arbor is the second city in the nation with a largest Argentinian Tango social network and club. First is San Fransisco.

Things that I will miss dearly about Ann Arbor:
1) Zingermann's Deli-- a Jewish deli that support fair trade and local farmers with a wide selection of imported cheeses from Europe. You can pretty much eat your lunch solely through the effortless taste-testing that is highly encouraged by the Zingermann's staff. People go ga-ga- over their sandwiches, and some even order them to be shipped to them across the nation. It's that good!

2) eve, the French Restaurant. They have sublime musseles, marinated in garlic and a special white wine sauce. Eve, the head chef, was educated at the Cordon Blue in France. Her restaurant in Ann Arbor is nationally acclaimed.

3) Sushi from Totoro, namely the Rainbow roll and the California roll (they use real crab legs, not imitation).

4) Cafe Havanah, the cuban restaurant. They have free salsa dance lessons every Thursday night and their deliciously refreshing mojitos are half off after midnight everyday!

5) That one homeless guy that is always shirtless and wears lacey bras. Everytime he rides his bike past me, I smile. He is the one man that can brighten my day no matter how upset I am.

6) The Blind Pig venue-- namely Soul Night on the first Friday of every month and The Bang, a once a month mixed tape dance party with crazy themes like Shark Attack, Boogie Nights, Hydro Sexy, etc.

7) The Law Quad. The first time I saw this ring of historic and elegant buildings, with pillars and gargoyle-like gothic embellishments in the marble corners of the arches, I fell in love. It is the kind of place that makes you think of the traditional scholar, of Aristotle, or Rousseau. In the middle is a peaceful garden with a small network of sidewalks that most people don't use. I prefer the grass as well. People often have picnics there. The secretive law library's entrance is situated there-- you can only go in if you are a law student and any noise, even the crumple of a paper, is subject to intense scrutiny and your mandatory leave of the library.

8) Dominick's -- the spanish bar in the residential area with the best sangrias in town. I will miss the blaring sirens that go off five minutes before closing-- 10pm-- which cause everyone to panic and chug their wine. Everyone usually congregates outside and since everyone is pretty much in a lush, it is the best time to pick/be picked up.

9) Angell Hall-- the 50 foot pillars remind me of a grander version of the white house. It houses some of the best English professors in the country including Ralph Williams.

10) Ralph Williams-- a lover of Shakespeare. A type of man that causes old ladies take the class just to see him. He spends the first 30 min of class shaking every student's hand. He won many national prestigious awards for best English lecturer and professor. Every year he goes to England to help direct one of the best Shakespearean traveling troupe of actors.

11) The guy in the Diag that wears the "Free Hugs" sign on his neck. I actually fell for it once. I wanted to compete with him with a "Free Kisses" sign, but for sanitation purposes, I never tried.

12) Le Dog-- the little red hut on Liberty Street that has Lobster Bisque. It's only served Thursdays and Fridays between 11:30 AM and 2:20 PM.

12) Ambrosia cafe and their $1 iced teas-- so much better than Starbucks. Best part is-- you can buy the art work hanging there which they change every so often. One of the artists works there.

13) Cottage Inn Pizza evening special $7.25 for a medium deep dish with two toppings and free bread sticks. They put toasted sesame seeds on their crust!

14) Red Hot Lovers-- their chicago dog.

15) Scorekeepers-- the underage bar. Bring any id, sometimes even hand drawn, and you're in. Many skanky freshmen girls go there to be picked up by the football players or creepy 40 year old men. They dress up like they are about to go out in Manhattan, don't they realize it is a sport's bar? For people watching and entertainment purposes, this place rocks.

16) Hill Billy Golf

17) The Stacks-- inside the Graduate Library. Best place to make out-- you can get a private room there. Great for studying because it is so damn quiet.

18) The Arb-- best place to go running. It is a huge park connected also to Gallop Park. You can kayak there too. I once played my viola in the ampitheater. It was pure joy.

19) Bubble Island- I love bubble tea-- I always get Taro milk tea with black bubbles. My other fav is the Lychee green tea with Lychee jellies.

20) Good Night Gracies-- I love the live Jazz every night and martinis. The old men there are never skeazy.

21) Adorn Me-- I think I pretty much buy something every time I go there.

My first entry, ever!

So I decided to start a blog to catalog and record the beginning of my new life as I enter Medical School. I am expecting lots of changes, including and not limited to: the death of my social life, incurring an excruciating amount of debt which could only be repaid by marrying another doctor or winning the lottery (I am thinking I will incur about $400,000, at least by my fourth year), waking up in the library on a regular basis, gaining medical school weight, being able to maturely discuss bodily functions without any giggles, finally learn how to use more than 2% of my brain power, and much, much more!

I plan to update this blog, at least once a week, but hopefully more often than that. We'll see how crazy it gets.