Author / Halley

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Posts by Halley

I’m the creator of Chiaroscuro, where I write about an array of topics, ranging from philosophy and psychology to fashion and food. Underlying all my interests is my passion for understanding people and how they live. I’m fascinated by the beauty and connections found in everyday life, and my goal is to highlight and share them in personal and meaningful ways.
by Halley

reasonable = grounds for debate

The past week has been a whirlwind of packing, airports, goodbyes, packing, driving, moving-in, unpacking, cleaning, classes, meeting new people, learning about contracts, talks by partners of Sonnenschein, almost fainting in 100+ weather, and stealing internet from neighbors and Starbucks. As you can see, I haven’t had much free time until now.

The apartment I moved in is in a beautiful, quiet, suburban community called Clayton. It’s purported to be the safest place in this area, roughly two miles away from the campus. The surrounding is laced with big, gorgeous houses that are mostly a combination of apartments and condos – something I have never seen before now. It’s not quite the same as the suburbs I’m used to, identical houses, perfectly manicured lawns, none of that. The old houses are curiously laced with spanking new corporate buildings – it’s a place of upper middle class WASPs, and Asians who are always obsessed with living in the safest and most reputable residential communities. Getting around without a car is a bit of a hassle, especially since I can’t get my Metro U pass which will give me free access to public transportation. That should, however, change once orientation rolls around in a couple of weeks.

Classes at Sonnenschein has been excellent. It’s a small seminar with exactly 20 students. We gather around a large conference table (in reality, several tables put together) on the 31st floor of the building – whose name I still cannot remember – with floor length windows overlooking the famous arch. There has already been a couple of mentions of jumping into the Mississippi from those windows. Classes ran for 4 hours, with one hour of dinner combined with speakers in between. The food has been good thus far, nothing to complain about especially since it’s free and they do a good job at avoiding repeats. Our instructor, Mr. Snell, is commendable for his humour and miraculously keeping all of us awake from 5 to 10pm every day. We just finished our week of contracts; the final was fun and slightly mind-boggling. I wish I had allowed myself a bit more time.

I still have yet to unpack my clothes, partly because I’ve been busy and partly because there not yet much room for me to unpack them to. But I should still go unpack some at least, I suppose.

by Halley

Brink

Today was my last day at Skate’s and I couldn’t help but feeling incredibly sad at leaving. In a little more than a day, I’ll be leaving NYC, but it isn’t just this city that I’m leaving behind. I’m leaving behind my last carefree summer. In a matter of days, I will have to start being a grown up, because while law school is still school, it won’t be like college. For one thing, the loans will be accruing interest at an alarming rate from day 1. It won’t be about the experience, it will be about getting that offer to pay off the loans and justifying this incredible investment in time, energy and money. And that’s just the beginning of the increasing responsibilities that I will be facing as I somehow find a way to fill the shoes of an adult.

The word really scares me. Responsibilities scare me. I’d like to think I’m a responsible person, but I’ve never really had to be 100% responsible for my life. It’s not just being financially independent, but also having to bear the weight of every decision I make, face every challenge by myself, figure out every problem on my own. There won’t be a safety net, no one to rely on. Can I do this? It’s not a real question, is it? We all have to, sooner or later. There really is no other option.

This is perhaps the main reason why I would like to get married sooner than later. It’s not because I have some romantic, fairytale fantasy of marriage, but rather I’m so used to having the support and love of a family in my life that I don’t think I could really be happy without it. I want to have that person that I can come home to and recount my day to. Someone that I can count on, someone who will be there for me no matter what happens. In the end, it’s not even so much what I need this person to do for me as my need to share my life with another. I want and need that companionship because without it life is just too lonely, and I just don’t do well with loneliness.

by Halley

I don’t know how to do this…

I don’t like eating half a gallon of ice scream and the idea of pigging out on a pizza is even less appealing. I have, however, been watching Mad Men and Gilmore Girls like there’s no tomorrow.

I’m not really sure what to think, much less what to do. In fact, I’m not even sure how I should feel.

I woke up at 9:30, went back to sleep, and woke up again with a dream that involved cufflinks, a voicemail, belts, and La Perla. Again, I don’t know what to think of that either…

by Halley

I <3 SoHo, NYC!

I swear this place is made for me. It reminds me of Oxford St. in London, with just about every store I know (and actually shop at, unlike Madison) nicely packed into a few blocks around Broadway. The first time I came to New York was for to renew my passport and I only had a couple of hours, which I spent strolling Madison Ave. (I wanted to go to the Met, but apparently they are closed on Mondays). Madison was beautiful…and jaw-dropping-expensive. I guess the closest UK counterpart would be Bond St. (I keep talking about London because it’s the only other major city I’ve spent a significant amount of time in). SoHo on the other hand is a lot more realistic for me, and I’m not sadly restricted to window-shopping :). When I first Googled the building that I’ll be working in for the next four weeks, I could not have asked for a better office location. If you know me, you can very well imagine the bliss I felt when I saw the plethora of store names that are in the immediate vicinity of the office.

On the other hand, the greater part of today was kind of excruciating 😦 As per usual, I did not have nearly enough sleep to function normally (4.3 hrs, to be exact, which is about 3.5 hrs short). In fact I was so sleeping during my trip, I didn’t even bother to eat the sandwich I bought for lunch. So I was suppose to get the keys to my apartment once I’m here…but I couldn’t reach the people with the keys. When I finally managed to drag myself and the two suitcases (it was a major ordeal since smart me opted for public transportation. I wish someone told me that NYC metro stations don’t have escalators or elevators.), the key girl finally called me back to tell me she’s out of the city on holiday (since when do people get Monday after July 4th off? I thought it was just universities >_>) and won’t be able to come back until 7-8pm. Joy. So there was me, stuck on the corner of Prince St. and Broadway, with two suitcases and nowhere to go. I then did the only thing I could do – head to a cafe…except the closest cafe was majorly claustrophobic; never thought I’d miss suburban chain cafes/chain bookstores so much 😦 I ordered jalapeño poppers…except they are less than half the portion, twice the price of what I got from Satis in Durham and not nearly as good *sigh*.

Just when I thought I was doomed to spend the rest of the day pulling my luggage around SoHo in the 95 degree weather, my boss called me to tell me that he booked a hotel for me for the night. Since I had just about enough dealing with my luggage, I decided to call for a cab…except I got turned down by the cab driver, who told me my destination was only a few blocks away and implied that I should just walk. So silly me actually walked. It wasn’t a long walk, to be fair, but again…two suitcases (one of them weighing 50.5 lb) makes it feel twice as long. When i finally got to the hotel, I was nicely told that I had no reservation. Turns out my boss booked the hotel in Expedia and Expedia failed to fax over the information. Joy. I spend the next 30min sitting in the hotel lobby as my boss and the hotel managers tried to get Expedia to send over the damn papers. 3 hours after I landed in LGA, I FINALLY settled into my room. Only to find out that one of the jars in my cosmetic box opened during the trip and the powder got everywhere. I spent the next 30min cleaning everything.

I think it must have been around 5 when I finally got around to eating the sandwich that was suppose to be my lunch. By then I was pretty much dead tired, so I napped for a couple of hours before the key lady finally called me. I got my key and planned on going to Brooklyn to check out the apartment, but as I got into the metro station I found out that I had left my metro card in the hotel. So I went shopping instead 🙂

Whew…that was a long post. I’m gonna go shower cuz I feel absolutely disgusting and I’ll probably have to get up tomorrow morning and finally move into my apartment. I’m taking the cab this time.

by Halley

Summer Shopping Sprees

Han and I spent the entire day driving back to Cleveland because…well, I simply miss Cleveland too much 😦 After all, my family and friends are here and this is probably the last summer I will get to (almost) everyone. Anyways, why do I need excuses to come home 🙂 The drive was a good 12 hours long, with Han driving 11 hours of it (thanks to caffeine hehe). We got home around 10:30pm and Dad made yummy noodle for us and now that we are clean and fed, we are back to sitting in front of our computers again (Han is gaming, as per usual).

Anyways…before we left for Cleveland I went to the outlet and did a major haul on skin care and beauty products (with a few additions in the clothing department, of course). I only visited a few stores, but it somehow still lasted for 3 hours O_O. Details will be posted on my new blog in the next couple of days – completed with pictures and reviews – stay tuned!