Random Bits & Pieces: Graduation Week

This post is all over the place, but that's how my week has been, literally. I started it in Cuba and will be ending it in Canada. Oh, and I'm graduating from law school today!

I got back from Cuba late Monday night, celebrated Sourabh's birthday with him on Tuesday (low-key since he's in the middle of the writing competition for journals at Columbia), then ran errands and cleaned our apartment Wednesday before my parents arrived last night. Phew!

I was so frazzled today that I completely forgot about my date with Carrie to do some much-needed Trader Joe's shopping!! The biggest apologies ever, Carrie, and thanks for being so understanding :) We'll be meeting up before book club next weekend. For those reading Savor, how are you liking it??

My parents are here now and I'm so excited for the short road trip we're taking after my graduation. We're going up to Montreal and Quebec! Anyway, to recap the post-Cuba and pre-graduation part of my week, here's what happened.

Sourabh was craving some top notch pizza for his birthday, so we headed to Motorino on the Lower East Side. It was fantastic. I got the Ramp Pizza and Sourabh had the Brussels Sprouts pizza without pancetta (he doesn't eat beef or pork). Both were great, but my ramp pizza was definitely the winner. The place was cute, too, without being kitschy. I'd definitely go back!

While in Cuba, there were a few things I really missed. Easily available fruit and veggies and iced coffee, to mention a few! It was crazy to me how little vegetables are in most cuban dishes -- it's very starch-heavy.

So the morning after I got home, the first thing I had was a bowl of plain Chobani Greek yogurt with some KIND granola (from FitBlog!) and a giant heap of raspberries. It was so satisfying!!

I also missed sweating a lot, despite running a very sweaty mile on the Malecon (the seaside promenade). Unfortunately, I didn't head out early enough, and even at 7:30 AM I was sweating buckets. Plus, the promenade isn't well-kept, so I stumbled quite a few times. Still, it's pretty cool to be able to say I went for a run in Cuba!!

I got back into the sweaty swing of things Wednesday by taking a fantastic spin class at Flywheel UWS with my friend Hana, taught by the amazing Dani Devine. Hana just graduated from UVA Law and just got back from Spain, so we had lots to catch up on! I'm taking a Refine Method class today, too, to make sure I get strength training in as well.

Oh yeah, another thing I missed. Hi cute face. Is there anything as great as how excited a dog is to see you when you get home from a trip, by the way??

And check out the sister cats, Bea and Betty, acting too cool for school. I know you missed me, cats. I'm the only one who pets Bea at 2 AM when she meows for attention...

I'm graduating this afternoon, so I will likely have a ton of photos tomorrow on the blog. I'll try to Instagram in real time, though, so follow along there if you're curious about what a law school graduation looks like! Hint: we wear funny robes and hats.


Do you have pets who miss you when you're gone? Do you miss certain foods when you travel?

Cuba Trip: Part 2

I just realized that yesterday was my 200th post! That's exciting :) It feels appropriate that it was something as exciting as my trip to Cuba. Of course, there's more to come today! If you missed it, here is Part 1 of my Cuba Trip.

As soon as we left the airport, I saw this car and got as excited as this little girl. Since the American embargo started in 1960 and became even stronger in 1962, no cars have gone to Cuba. The only cars there are old American cars, Soviet cars, and the occasional European car.

Funny story here -- during George W. Bush's presidency, anti-Castro images were projected on the large building behind all those poles. It's the "United States Interests Section of the Embassy of Switzerland in Havana" (can you say, bureaucratic mess?). Anyway, the Cuban government didn't like that, so they erected all those poles and flew Cuban flags from them, so that a forest of flags covered the anti-Castro messages. Eventually it was all taken down, but I think that entire episode says a lot about how the U.S. and Cuba interact...

While in Cuba, I could only use my phone for its non-internet/4G functions. Meaning no web browsing, no email, no texting, nothing. Placing a call to the U.S. to tell Sourabh I'd arrived safely was $2.45 a minute. While my hotel had internet you could pay for, it was so incredibly slow that I couldn't load cnn.com to see what was happening in the world.

To say that being in Cuba is isolating is putting it lightly. And that oh-so-slow internet connection? Almost no Cuban has even that. Even university students don't have internet, just intranet so that they can communicate within the school.

Requisite seaside pose. Holy shit I'm pale. I'm standing on the Malecon, a miles-long, wide promenade facing the sea. 

Every night that we were in Havana, there were hundreds of people along this wide seaside walkway. It was mainly young people hanging out together, chatting, playing drums, and dancing. There were also some extremely amorous couples.

There was a lot of live music everywhere, from restaurants and bars to our hotel lobby. Every few songs, the singer would come around with a basket, and it's recommended that you drop a small tip in (small meaning $1-2 or so). The musicians are all clearly well-trained artists, so it's nothing like panhandlers on the subway. But considering how little most people are paid in Cuba, these tips mean a lot to the musicians.

One of the students on the trip, Jose Mario, is half Puerto Rican and half Cuban. He grew up in Puerto Rico and told me that the beat of music in Cuba is different from that of Puerto Rico and that they're both different from the beat of music in the Dominican Republic. Fascinating!

Cuba is also extremely integrated. One major point of pride for the nation is how there is very little racial division. After the revolution, the university was integrated. The official drink is the negron, which has white sugar and clear rum on the bottom and coke and mint on top -- you then mix it up before drinking so that you can't distinguish white and black.

Cuban breakfast! I loaded up on the fruit; most Cubans would be eating more of the baked goods or eggs.

Yesterday, I was asked what kind of questions Cubans asked us. Besides asking about internet access, we were asked about New York City and if our university was free (HAH!!! Hahahahaha. I had to look up the Spanish for "student loans").

Then, while I was scrolling through pictures of America, one of the Cuban students saw my food pictures and asked about what we ate in America, since the average Cuban mainly eats rice and beans.

Traditional Cuban dish -- camarones enchilados, shrimp in a spicy sauce, with rice and beans and fried plantains.

Cubans receive ration books that are meant to last them for a month, but typically only get them through half the month. Then, they have to figure out another way to feed themselves.

Many Cubans receive money from relatives who have emigrated. Others try to subsidize by fishing (without gear). And there are lots of small arts and crafts markets where Cubans sell art, jewelry, and other handiwork to tourists.

On Sunday afternoon, as our group walked along the Prado, a main boulevard separating districts, we saw lots of children painting, learning how to make crafts, and sketching. Teachers were helping them draw and teaching them artistic techniques.

My classmates! 

Traveling to Cuba was an incredible, once-in-a-lifetime experience (unless the embargo is lifted). A huge, huge thank you to our professor who made it possible. Being able to explore Havana with the insight of an expert on the nation was amazing. I hope that one day I can return to the island.

Cuba Trip: Part 1

Late last night, I finally got back to New York City. If you follow me on Twitter, you may have seen that I was traveling on Friday.

As part of my seminar on Cuban law this past term, we could go to Cuba legally with our professor and learn about the country. So last Friday, I flew down to Miami and boarded a plane to Cuba for the short, 45 minute flight to Havana.

I am so incredibly excited to be able to share this trip with you all. Cuba is an amazing country with a deep history and a sense of culture that permeates everything. Yet it's also a poor country, and despite what some say about the nation's healthcare or education, the poverty was very evident.

A huge number of the buildings in Centro Havana, outside Old Havana, are decaying and crumbling. However, this area used to be much more of a slum than it is today, so things are improving.

Many once-extravagant homes are inhabited by multiple families in different rooms.

Just as evident as the poverty is the warmth of the people. Cubans were eager to talk to our group -- we stood out since four of us were blondes! And unlike in other Caribbean countries I've visited, while Cubans might solicit you to buy something, once you shook your head they left you alone and did not continue bothering you.

A group of students approached us as we took photos of the University of Havana, asking us if we were Americans. They were excited when they heard we were from New York, and we showed them pictures of the city on our phones.

The students were most interested in if we had internet. All of them asked us if we had free internet access at our school and what limits we had. Internet is not available at the University of Havana, only intranet, meaning it is only for communicating within the school and cannot be used for accessing outside websites or email services.

Cuba is, after all, a Communist country that has only one political party. This is very evident as you walk around. There are slogans, posters, and entire building sides dedicated to propaganda.

Street side booksellers largely sell Cuban revolutionary material.

We only had a few days there, Friday evening and the weekend, but we tried to make the most of our time.

Friday night we had drinks at Hotel Nacional de Cuba, a hotel famous for its celebrity clientele back in the 1930s and 1940s (including a major mafia conference dramatized in The Godfather Part II) and also for its bloody history. The hotel was the site of a small siege between rebellious army factions.

Saturday we got to meet and talk to Cuban nationals, one a former high ranking official and the other an economist. After, we walked throughout Old Havana, the UNESCO World Heritage Site part of the city.

Finally, on Sunday, we saw the university, explored Old Havana further, and saw the Plaza de la Revolucion before going to dinner in Miramar, where most embassies are. The neighborhood was quite upscale prior to the Revolution and there are beautiful houses and mansions throughout the wide streets.

The gigantic Soviety Embassy, now the Russian Embassy

During the Special Period, the time after the collapse of the Soviet Union when Cuba lost all support from the Soviets and experienced major food and fuel shortages, the Cuban government decided to turn to tourism.

But because Cuba is Communist, tourists use a different currency than Cuba nationals, called the convertible peso ("cuc" pronounced "kook"). The cuc has roughly a 1:1 ratio to U.S. dollars, and meals in most restaurants range from $8-20 or so. If this seems expensive for a developing nation, that's because basically only tourists can afford to eat in restaurants -- the average Cuban makes roughly $20 a month.

At La Bodeguita del Medio, famous for its notable clientele (Hemingway, Neruda, and Allende)
It claims to be the birthplace of the mojito.

Enjoying a daiquiri at El Floridita, famous for its daiquiris and being a favorite bar of Hemingway.
Note the Hemingway statue at the bar in the background!

This was the most beautiful, incredible, delicious thing I've ever had. It was mixed coconut water, meat, and milk that was frozen into a coconut shell. This will haunt my dream for weeks.

Old Havana is the main tourist destination in Havana. It's beautiful -- a mixture of crumbling and restored Spanish buildings dating back hundreds of years, with narrow streets and open squares.

That's all for now, folks. It's Sourabh's birthday and I still have some pre-graduation errands I need to get done! But I will be posting more about Cuba tomorrow.


Do you have any questions for me about Cuba that you'd like answered in tomorrow's post??

FitBlog 2013 and I'm Done with Law School!

Hi all!

This week has been crazy busy, if you couldn't tell from the lack of posts. Finishing up papers, taking care of graduation requirements, getting ready for some travel (I am so excited to share about this next week!), and taking lots of super sweaty classes.

I'm posting this from the sky, courtesy of $10-for-90-minutes wi-fi. This ridiculously high price seemed worth it because I'm an internet addict.

I'm away until late Monday night, but I wanted to recap the awesome day I had yesterday at FITNESS Magazine's Meet & Tweet at the Mercedes Club here in New York.

First, I have to say a huge thank you to FITNESS Magazine. This event was incredible. Not only did it expose me to a huge number of new brands that I’m eager to learn more about, FitBlog allowed me to meet "in real life" several bloggers I love, like Tina, Monica and Christine. 

I checked in and grabbed my name tag and free CamelBak... which I forgot at the event! I'm a tad bit heartbroken about this, since I loved it for the four hours I had it. I might need to actually buy one...

So official!! This made me inordinately excited, not going to lie.

The event started with breakfast. I’d eaten a bite before heading out, but I assumed they’d have food – breakfast is the most important meal, after all! – so I saved room to enjoy whatever was available at the event. I’m glad I did because they had juices, mini muffins, hard-boiled eggs, and coconut yogurt parfaits! I snagged a green juice and mini muffin. I have no idea of how healthy the muffin was, but it was delicious (I’m going with “not-so-healthy”).

Healthy blogger heaven right there.

While waiting in line to check in, I introduced myself to the girl in front of me. Kayla's blog is adorable, and we chatted while eating breakfast. I love seeing undergrads get into health and fitness! That was certainly not my number one priority, and I yo-yo'd up and down up to 25 lbs throughout college. I saw Kara arrive, and we all three decided we needed a picture with the FITNESS Magazine sign.

Me, Kara, and Kayla

Since Kayla's blog is titled Blondes Have More Run, the fact that this photo is all blonde runners seemed appropriate.

Most of the event was held outside on the Mercedes Club's deck, which was great since it was lovely spring weather and it would have been a shame to be cooped up inside.

Around 9:30, Betty Wong, the Editor-in-Chief of FITNESS, kicked off the day before the first panel started, welcoming us to the event. I loved her perspective on healthy living. And her awesome camo pants. 

Top Left - Heather Muir and Sarah Lucero, Top Right - Lisa Haney Dr. Jennifer Ashton
Middle - Christie Griffin, Dana Weiss, Deb Perelman, Jill Hanner, Erin Whitehead
Bottom Left - Brett Hoebel and Mary Christ Anderson, Bottom Right - Pam O'Brien and Rocco DiSpirito

The panels began with Sarah Lucero, the Executive Director of Global Artistry for Stila Cosmetics, being interviewed by Heather Muir, Beauty Director for FITNESS. Sarah spoke about her battle with breast cancer and gave her advice on makeup for the hot, humid summers we get in New York. 

One of Sarah's tips was to match your makeup to your clothes, i.e. if you're wearing light clothes because it's hot out, you should wear light makeup like a tinted moisturizer. Heavier clothes = heavier makeup. Another one was to match your lipstick to your blush. This sounded obvious to me, but then I realized I tend to use lighter blush (when I wear it, which is almost never) and berry-colored lip tints.

Next, Senior Editor Lisa Haney interviewed Dr. Jennifer Ashton, an ob-gyn, about her holistic approach to health. Dr. Ashton urged women to consult their ob-gyns about their total health, not just their pelvic region. 

Dr. Ashton also advocated the "5 and 2 day" approach to eating -- straightforward healthy eating on weekdays and more indulgence on the weekend. I love this idea and *basically* follow it, although as a student it can sometimes be harder to keep the 5/2 approach and it becomes more like 4/3. Getting to that 5/2 ratio is a priority for this summer!

The third panel had me extremely excited -- it was a discussion with four influential bloggers entitled "my blog is my business." One of them was Deb Perelman of Smitten Kitchen fame!

I get so excited when I meet someone like Deb. Her blog is one of the first blogs that I ever followed – her recipes are uniformly fantastic yet pretty easy and she has a great writing style. The fact that she is responsible for multiple wonderful dinners, desserts, and brunches makes me love her even more. 

Deb doesn’t write “healthy” recipes, per se, rather she uses lots of whole foods and is big on cooking with fresh, seasonal ingredients. If you don’t already follow her, you need to add Smitten Kitchen to your reader. She’s my first stop whenever I want to make something awesome and (relatively) foolproof.  


All of which is to say, I basically pounced on her and begged for a photo, telling her how much my bff Katie and I adored her. Sorry for being a creeper, Deb!

One of the panel's biggest points they emphasized was writing good, original content and not writing in order to make money. Of course, money could follow and they all suggested that bloggers should advocate for themselves for freelance writing, product samples, etc., but all four women strongly believed that good content was key to turning a blog into a moneymaking venture.

Brett Hoebels was then interviewed by Deputy Editor Mary Christ Anderson. Brett was a featured trainer on The Biggest Loser, season 11. He emphasized the importance of pushing yourself past that comfort threshold, saying people needed to "get breathless" in their workouts. 

Finally, the panels portion of the day concluded with Rocco DiSpirito, the award-winning chef and author of Now Eat This! Italian. The cookbook focuses on recreating Italian recipes in healthier ways. Rocco discussed spending time in Italy with Italian home cooks and how much he'd learned from the experience. He also gave tips on healthy eating, such as advocating for yourself at restaurants and asking for things to be changed in order to be healthier.

Peanut butter-fueled shenanigans

After the panels, lunch was available and we could walk around and meet with all the sponsors, which included Athleta, CamelBak, Crystal Light Liquid, Ford Fiesta Movement, Marmot, Reebok, Saucony, Smart Balance, Tonalin, and Vichy. 

We received samples at a lot of the sponsors' tables, which was amazing, and it was great to learn more about the brands. 

I am definitely a creature of habit, so being exposed to new brands and products is a great way of getting me to try new things. I'm looking forward to using the samples we were provided!

The Jens!
(Photo credit: Jen)

After checking out all the sponsors and eating lunch with friends, I grabbed the bag full of goodies we were given and left an hour early. 

Insane, right? THANK YOU FITNESS!!!

Leaving a bit early meant I missed the end-of-day workout. I wanted to take part, but I had a paper I needed to finish and submit, in addition to packing, before I took Sourabh out for a celebratory movie and early dinner. Yep, yesterday was his last final! He's officially done with his first year of law school, which is by far the toughest. I'm so proud of how hard he's worked the past nine months!

And oh, by the way... after I submitted that paper yesterday, I am officially done with law school and am graduating in less than a week. Craziness! I still have the two month, extremely intensive Bar Review course and, oh yeah, the Bar exam at the end of July. But at least I'll have a J.D.?