they have this kind of food in c'ville?

So L'etoile ended up being booked solid for the week, and apparently all spots were filled on Monday. Seems like Restaurant Week is popular indeed. =) My friend and I opted for C&O, another charming restaurant on the downtown mall. It was $27 for a three course meal -- with very hearty helpings. All I can say is.. wow. I had no idea they had this caliber of food in C'ville. I'm a big fan of TopChef, and I would compare the food to what they produce on the show. It was amazing, and I almost had to waddle out after the meal, haha. If you ever have the chance, go just to have their bread. Their bread is so. darned. good! I wanted to be able to just eat the bread and nothing else. I was pretty heartbroken when I found out that they made in it in the restaurant, and didn't get it from a bakery. I would love to have a steady supply of that bread. =D

As I was going to work today, I saw an orientation leader put up balloons on the side of the road. Sigh, I'm truly old now. Rising fourth year! Consumed with thoughts of my future career and the impending separation of all my friends. Sigh. It really seems like it was only a short blink of an eye to when I was traipsing these Grounds for the first time. *shakes a stern finger* Enjoy your years in college! Or as I like to say it, reach out and seize college by the throat, don't let go until you've shaken everything you can from it. ..a bit graphic, but you get the point.

My friend who was in the car asked an interesting question though -- how many friends do you still have from orientation? I thought about it for a little bit, then realized with some surprise that I barely remember anyone I met from orientation. So don't be worried if you don't click with the people at orientation. I didn't, not that much. Yet here I am today with a huge network of people and the best friends I've ever made. I did make all my best friends from first year though, and met all of them during my first semester. Morale of the story is, don't coop yourself up inside during those first months. I know it can be a huge shock, moving to a new environment and being surrounded with strangers, but go out, talk to people, and make some friends. =)

Restaurant week in C'ville!

This week is Charlottesville's much anticipated Restaurant Week, in which all the fine restaurants of C'ville put together mouth watering menus available at greatly reduced prices. I'm going with a friend to Cassis tonight -- I'm not sure what kind of food they serve. My friend is a huge fine food buff and is basically dragging me there. Oh well, can't say no to good food! =D

We were also going to go to L'Etoile, a fine French restaurant, but they've been booked solid for the rest of the week ever since Monday. Whew. That's a great reputation there.

Other notable Charlottesville happenings include a Film Festival in the spring in which a lot of local productions are featured and a.. Used Book Month (for lack of anything better to call it, aka I've forgotten the actual name) in which there's huge book yard sales all the time (most exciting for a book lover like me!). I'm a bit braindead right now after looking at reams and reams of numbers, so these are the only two I remember.

Recently I've been reaching out to a lot of alumni, and reconnecting with what's happened in their lives. As we're in the middle of the summer slump right now, you've probably already experienced how easy it is to lose touch with people. This gets worse after college, when people scatter off to all different parts of the world, much less than country. Make an effort to keep in touch with your friends! You don't want to look back one day and wonder "hum.. I wonder where did so and so go? And what about so and so?" I've already done my fair amount of that with people who've graduated! =(

monsters in 3d?

I watched Monsters vs. Aliens over the weekend -- it was also the first movie I'd watched that was in 3d. I had to put the 3d glasses on over my regular glasses because I'm too scared to put stuff in my eyes = no contacts. I really appreciated the 3d, but not sure if it made the movie more real. I think the next step for movie theaters is virtual reality, in which the action is actually happening around you. ..that'd give directors a headache to film though.

I think I might've vaguely talked about movie theaters in an earlier post, so this one will explore the entertainment options offered at UVA. The first thing that comes to mind is definitely the theather in Newcomb. The theater is where tour groups go first for their information sessions, and it transformed into a movie theater from Thurs - Sat for students. The movies are pretty recent, with showings of big favorites such as Pirates of the Caribbean and Harry Potter. The biggest thing is, they're only $3, and popcorn is only $1. Definitely a big money saver on the college student's wallet.

Another one of my favorites is to attend the UVA drama department's production. Each student receive $35 worth of Art$ dollars every semester, and they're free to spend those on free drama production tickets. I can't say enough good things about our drama department. Quality acting, excellent sets and costumes, and amazing directing. I took a drama class my second year and watched my teacher in the production of Hedda Gabler, and then watched some friends in.. ooh darn I forgot the name! But it was also an amazing production.

The student activities building (where you go for orientation) also hosts several productions -- ones from the First Year Players are the most notable. Only first years are allowed to actually perform in the First Year Players, the other years are delegated to set and crew. This is so that first years aren't shunted into the background just because they're first years -- I remember feeling very impressed when I first learned about this at the activities fair. I'm a big fan of FYP as well, I went to watch a musical/modern take on the Princess and the Pea my first year and spent the night laughing. Their production this semester was Sweeney Todd, but alas and alack, I didn't have time to watch it.

Then there's always the Lawn to watch Shakespeare on the Lawn -- they perform exclusively in front of the Rotunda. I think a tour group passed by one of their productions a couple of weeks ago, I hope the tourists weren't too weirded out. =P They have a couple impromptu performances too I think, but I've yet to bump into one.

Speaking of impromptu, we have two impromptu troupes here -- the Weathermen and Amuse Bouche. Amuse Bouche is a relatively new one, I think they started last year. I've seen their shows at several club meetings I was present at, and was definitely entertained. Thinking about all the performance opportunities I've attend and heard about at UVA, I'm definitely impressed by the level of talent found here. I haven't even gotten to talking about our musical productions in Old Cabell Hall yet! But class calls, I'll be back!

didja feel the love yesterday?

Whether you're happily in love or celebrate Single Awareness Day, I hope you had an excellent Valentine's Day! I had a fantastic day -- even with my boyfriend up in DC taking his foreign service exam, with one of my sorority sisters.

I have to tell this story of the somewhat dumb thing we did though, we decided to go watch "He's just not that into you" (on Valentine's no less, the irony doesn't escape me) at the Carmike theater on 29. Semi tangent here, how does such a large place (relatively speaking) like Charlottesville only have three movie theaters? This is definitely something I feel the city should remedy, entertainment selection isn't that great here. But back to our quest to the movie theater. Well, we didn't really know where it is (I should pay attention when I go with friends that *do* know where it is..), and so we were driving around, a bit lost on 29. I called one of my friends -- the wrong thing to do with this particular friend because she's not quite the best with directions, at all. She told us to go back four miles, so back we did. We pulled into a parking lot -- the WRONG theater!! Zomg. We were now 5 minutes late for the movie, aiii. So I called another friend, and he told us that Carmike was were we were before! *cue facepalm*

By the time we got there, it was too late to catch the 4:10 pm showing -- that was fine, we just moved dinner up. The line, was insane. I think Caroline premiered yesterday? The line was all the way up to the street! I have to say though, "He's just not that into you" was one of the best chick flicks I've ever seen. I would actually haul my boyfriend to this one, I think he'd enjoy it. Some other guys in the theater didn't though, halfway through the film in my row, there was a huuuuge almighty snore that made everyone in the theater dissolve into giggles.

If you're ever in C'ville and want to grab a bite of Thai food, go where I went with my sister: Limeleaf. It's an excellent place to eat, good value/food for the price, and you *must* order the sticky rice mango, it's my absolute favorite dessert!