The home stretch

Almost a month has passed since my last post. A lot has happened, but I've been too lazy to post anything. Hopefully once I finish this half marathon in a couple weeks, I'll regain motivation.

We're closing in on the home stretch as far as classes go. After this week, we have just nine weeks of class remaining (cooking and waiting tables at the Wine Spectator Greystone Restaurant) before we all go off on externships until May 2009, after which we graduate. Some of my classmates will be externing at restaurants around here and the bay area, while others are headed to far away places like Hawaii, Colorado, New York, Oregon, Texas, and possibly even Spain.

When I came out here, I said to myself that I'd never work in New York City. Well, it only took a year for me to cave on that stance. In December, I'm moving to New York City to complete my externship at Per Se. The restaurant changed my mind about the city. The kitchen is like a palace. I've never seen a better run operation. You could literally eat off the floor. Also, I think it'll be really valuable to inoculate myself with those meticulous work habits and high standards from the start, so I can carry them forward in my career.

I'm going to be living in Park Slope, Brooklyn, with my little sister Anita. She moved to New York a couple years ago for graduate school, which she just finished, so now she's working there. We're getting an apartment in December. I'm still not sure about my long term plans. Depending on how I like it, I may stay in New York for a while to get some experience.

At first I was a little hesitant about living in New York over the winter, but after spending a few weekends there this summer, I no longer have any doubts. I'll take bone chillingly cold weather over suffocating humidity any day, especially in the subways. You'd be amazed how odors travel.

I've just started the process of figuring out what I need to get rid of before I move there and how I'm going to take with me what I plan to keep. Yesterday I sold my mountain bike, and I'm putting my car up for sale later this month. My sister is visiting in a couple weeks to run the half marathon with me, so I'll probably send her back with a suitcase or two. I'll have to ship some stuff, and the rest will be taken care of with a big moving sale around Thanksgiving. I feel like I just did this a year ago...

Oh yeah, I ended up passing that wine exam I mentioned a while back (thankfully), so now I'm officially a Certified Wine Professional.
Aaron Adalja, C.W.P. Sounds like something you put on a business card.