i'm moving to seoul in less than a week.
if anyone knows of any possible job opportunities or has friends in korea that i could meet, please let me know!
Friday, May 28, 2010
dear friends,
as someone who works in the service industry, i'm going to share a few helpful tips on restaurant decorum and eating-out, THIS IS ESPECIALLY PERTAINING TO FOLKS IN NYC.
1. your party/group-of-diners will not be seated until you're ALL complete and everyone has arrived in the restaurant, PERIOD. let's say you and your friends are going to be a total of five people, but one person is running late. unless all five of you are in the restaurant and the hostess can see everyone with their own eyes, YOU WILL NOT BE SEATED. this is done in restaurants because a) even though you claim they're a block away or parking the car or smoking a cigarette or getting money from the ATM, there is a possibility that they're not anywhere near the restaurant and if you're seated without everyone being present, you will take up a table when it can be used for a party that is complete and ready to start their meal b) people lie all the time about their friends arriving shortly. if you're seated at your table and start off with drinks while you wait for your friend who actually arrives 40 minutes later, that table space could have been better utilized during that time c) THIS IS JUST HOW NYC RESTAURANTS WORK
2. never stack your plates when you're done with your food---you are in no way helping your server by doing so. it's more annoying than anything and goes to show that you need to chill out and let us do our job.
3. after consuming oysters, take the empty shell and place it upside down on the plate that the oysters arrived on. i'm going to assume that your oysters were eaten in the beginning of your meal (since raw bar food mostly is) when your plate will mostly likely be clean and usable for another dish or course. placing the used oyster shells on your plate this early on in the meal doesn't utilize the plate to its full capacity and while switching it out for a new one is no problem for your server, it is a bit unnecessary.
4. do not lie about having allergies to ingredients that you don't like to eat, we see right through you.
5. no, you cannot try on my glasses.
6. refrain from keeping your cell phones and other electronic devices on the table. drinks and food do spill on occasion and we wouldn't want your precious livelihood to get wet or damaged.
7. there's no such thing as annoying kids, but instead annoying parents who allow their children to act out in restaurants.
8. don't ask me "what's YOUR favorite dish?" and then immediately dismiss my answer because it's not what you wanted to hear.
9. no, we really DO NOT HAVE diet coke, tea, or peach snapple.
10. if your server just responded to your question/remark with a smile, laugh and an "oh yeah totally" and then just walked away, then we have no idea what you just said.
i could go on forever but i'll leave it at this. please be kind to service industry employees if they're providing good service.
enjoy your holiday weekend!
as someone who works in the service industry, i'm going to share a few helpful tips on restaurant decorum and eating-out, THIS IS ESPECIALLY PERTAINING TO FOLKS IN NYC.
1. your party/group-of-diners will not be seated until you're ALL complete and everyone has arrived in the restaurant, PERIOD. let's say you and your friends are going to be a total of five people, but one person is running late. unless all five of you are in the restaurant and the hostess can see everyone with their own eyes, YOU WILL NOT BE SEATED. this is done in restaurants because a) even though you claim they're a block away or parking the car or smoking a cigarette or getting money from the ATM, there is a possibility that they're not anywhere near the restaurant and if you're seated without everyone being present, you will take up a table when it can be used for a party that is complete and ready to start their meal b) people lie all the time about their friends arriving shortly. if you're seated at your table and start off with drinks while you wait for your friend who actually arrives 40 minutes later, that table space could have been better utilized during that time c) THIS IS JUST HOW NYC RESTAURANTS WORK
2. never stack your plates when you're done with your food---you are in no way helping your server by doing so. it's more annoying than anything and goes to show that you need to chill out and let us do our job.
3. after consuming oysters, take the empty shell and place it upside down on the plate that the oysters arrived on. i'm going to assume that your oysters were eaten in the beginning of your meal (since raw bar food mostly is) when your plate will mostly likely be clean and usable for another dish or course. placing the used oyster shells on your plate this early on in the meal doesn't utilize the plate to its full capacity and while switching it out for a new one is no problem for your server, it is a bit unnecessary.
4. do not lie about having allergies to ingredients that you don't like to eat, we see right through you.
5. no, you cannot try on my glasses.
6. refrain from keeping your cell phones and other electronic devices on the table. drinks and food do spill on occasion and we wouldn't want your precious livelihood to get wet or damaged.
7. there's no such thing as annoying kids, but instead annoying parents who allow their children to act out in restaurants.
8. don't ask me "what's YOUR favorite dish?" and then immediately dismiss my answer because it's not what you wanted to hear.
9. no, we really DO NOT HAVE diet coke, tea, or peach snapple.
10. if your server just responded to your question/remark with a smile, laugh and an "oh yeah totally" and then just walked away, then we have no idea what you just said.
i could go on forever but i'll leave it at this. please be kind to service industry employees if they're providing good service.
enjoy your holiday weekend!
Thursday, May 20, 2010
i'm tired of meeting people in the context of new york.
since high school, i would say most of the close friends i have met and made were all from places other than new york. whether it's california, maine, canada or any other place in the world, i felt fortunate to be already living in a city where millions of people flock to on a regular basis and uproot and change their lives for. meeting all these new people is great because i hear their stories and learn about how different their lives were from mine while growing up---life outside nyc does exist. i especially always wonder how their streets and homes looked like (to this day i have no idea for almost all of my friends who i didn't grow up with in queens).
then i start thinking about other random shit like maybe how different their persona back at home was compared to their nyc persona now. and then i wonder about things like where they went out to on the weekends with their friends or how different their daily commute used to be with their cars---i could ponder about it forever, it's fascinating.
now they live in nyc and we go out to places like so and so and we eat at places like so and so and our favorite neighborhood is so and so. this is their life and who they are now in new york and it's all i know of them.
but now i want to explore my other personas in places other than new york. i want to travel and meet people in different places and context and take all the tools i've learned in the city and put them to use in other places. i'm tired of meeting people at the same parties and having that same inevitable conversation about where we grew up and why they're in new york now and blah blah. i want to feel liberated and be in a completely new environment, just like all the people who came to this city.
nyc is magical at every age and it always has and forever will be. whether i'm here or you're here or john and sally smith are in new york or not, it doesn't matter. the city will always be here still chugging away and knowing that comfortable thought makes the thought of leaving it so much easier.
since high school, i would say most of the close friends i have met and made were all from places other than new york. whether it's california, maine, canada or any other place in the world, i felt fortunate to be already living in a city where millions of people flock to on a regular basis and uproot and change their lives for. meeting all these new people is great because i hear their stories and learn about how different their lives were from mine while growing up---life outside nyc does exist. i especially always wonder how their streets and homes looked like (to this day i have no idea for almost all of my friends who i didn't grow up with in queens).
then i start thinking about other random shit like maybe how different their persona back at home was compared to their nyc persona now. and then i wonder about things like where they went out to on the weekends with their friends or how different their daily commute used to be with their cars---i could ponder about it forever, it's fascinating.
now they live in nyc and we go out to places like so and so and we eat at places like so and so and our favorite neighborhood is so and so. this is their life and who they are now in new york and it's all i know of them.
but now i want to explore my other personas in places other than new york. i want to travel and meet people in different places and context and take all the tools i've learned in the city and put them to use in other places. i'm tired of meeting people at the same parties and having that same inevitable conversation about where we grew up and why they're in new york now and blah blah. i want to feel liberated and be in a completely new environment, just like all the people who came to this city.
nyc is magical at every age and it always has and forever will be. whether i'm here or you're here or john and sally smith are in new york or not, it doesn't matter. the city will always be here still chugging away and knowing that comfortable thought makes the thought of leaving it so much easier.
Monday, May 10, 2010
do you believe in the power of a pair of glasses?
i've had my glasses for a few years now. they were old sunglasses that i made into glasses and i honestly don't see them on people very often but when i do, i always find it interesting because we must have something similar within ourselves to take the exact same style of sunglasses to make them into glasses. so a few weekends ago i was coming from penn station and running really late so i hopped into a cab to get home in the uws. the cabbie was an older gentleman with a grey mustache, smaller in size and seemed pretty normal and nice. i was in the backseat just minding my business when i noticed through the rearview mirror that the both of us were wearing the same pair of glasses. not being able to pass up the moment, i leaned forward to talk into the already opened sliding window and mentioned what i had just noticed.
suffice it to say, vince and i spent the rest of the ride telling each other our personal stories on how we ended up with our glasses.
i've had my glasses for a few years now. they were old sunglasses that i made into glasses and i honestly don't see them on people very often but when i do, i always find it interesting because we must have something similar within ourselves to take the exact same style of sunglasses to make them into glasses. so a few weekends ago i was coming from penn station and running really late so i hopped into a cab to get home in the uws. the cabbie was an older gentleman with a grey mustache, smaller in size and seemed pretty normal and nice. i was in the backseat just minding my business when i noticed through the rearview mirror that the both of us were wearing the same pair of glasses. not being able to pass up the moment, i leaned forward to talk into the already opened sliding window and mentioned what i had just noticed.
suffice it to say, vince and i spent the rest of the ride telling each other our personal stories on how we ended up with our glasses.
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