Eating My Way Through NC

My most recent trip involved two North Carolina firms: one in Raleigh and one in Greensboro.  Since my mom got to meet me in Charlotte, my dad won the rights to meet me for this trip.  He had a lunch in Raleigh the night before I got there and scheduled some meetings the next day, then drove me home after escorting me to Greensboro.  I got down to Raleigh on Monday night and we got dinner at the Fox and Hound in North Hills.  That way, we could stay close to the hotel and watch Monday Night Football.  Although dad's favorite baseball team, the Orioles, lost, my football team, the NY Giants (led by former Tar Heel Hakeem Nicks) had a victory over the Rams. If anyone heads that way, I'd recommend the mild wings, they have a hint of garlic that really makes it delicious!

I had my interview at 10 the next morning and had lunch with two of the attorneys at Sitti in downtown Raleigh. I had eaten there before but enjoyed the return trip.  Their menu has a symbol for all of the gluten free items which is quite helpful for me. We started with the baba ganoush and then I had the falafel.  It was too much for me to finish though, after such great appetizers! It came out during lunch that one of the attorneys went to law school with Jay Bilas, which I found entertaining, even though that meant she (and the other interviewer) went to Duke law. 

Dad and I went to Southpoint to watch The Help, through which we both cried (shh) then drove to Greensboro for dinner.  We went to a steakhouse in Friendly Center (Flemings) which was pretty pricey and I didn't want to bill too much for the firm.  Instead, we got small plates, which may have the best choice ever.  I had a filet kabob dish with gorgonzola dipping sauce and a tomato and mozzarella salad, while dad had an ahi tuna dish.  Both were amazing but the gorgonzola sauce made mine the best. 

The next day I had the interview and drove back to Charlottesville.  I bought some French tapes to keep myself entertained, but I still managed to get a little bored, so I had to stop and get some candy. Thus, I probably ate during 75% of my three-day trip, hence the name of this post.

Next stop, San Diego!!

EDIT: I talked about all the food I ate, but not where I stayed! Raleigh was the Renaissance North Hills, beloved among the Young family for the TV in the bathroom mirror:

And in Greensboro was the Proximity Hotel.  It was nice, and a LEED certified Green hotel, but I'm against it because it was way too hard to find both the coffee maker and a place to plug it in. Plus, it brewed four cups for one packet! I like my caffeine but not THAT much :)

You Had Me at Godiva

Yesterday was my last Philadelphia callback, at redacted firm name. I took the 3:50 flight out of Charlottesville, which was delayed a few minutes, as always.  Firm also put me at the Palomar, the place I stayed last trip, but this time I had a better view:

 Yes, that's from my hotel window

I couldn't resist snapping another picture of the strange art

I was slightly disappointed with the hotel placement, not only because I had stayed there before, but I had heard another hotel had their own chocolatier.  Redacted.  However, I wasn't too disappointed when, upon checking into the Palomar, I was given a box of Godiva and a similar note.  It wasn't locally made, but it was still chocolate, which I think is such a sweet touch that is unique thus far in my experience.

I met a friend from UVA, Esther, who also had callbacks at firms to dinner.  Since it was restaurant week, it was hard to find a restaurant that wasn't full of reservations already.  We decided on Audrey Claire, because they didn't take reservations and headed over.

First of all, we didn't expect that Fall would hit Philly so soon, and with such a vengeance so we were underdressed for the brisk winds.  Secondly, we didn't exactly understand what restaurant week meant, when the front desk clerk tried to explain to us.  We were given a prix fixe menu, which was $35 per person.  I later found out that most of the time, you can ask for a normal menu to save some money, but we had no idea about this and all of the venues in the area were participating in the promotion.  We did get a lovely 3 course meal, however.  I started with an arugula salad with goat cheese and figs, went on to a potato crusted ahi tuna with mashed potatoes and green beans, and finished with a cinnamon rice pudding.  The waitress was very knowledgeable about what was gluten-free, and with her suggestions it was a great meal. My dessert options are always limited, so I decided to be adventurous and get the rice pudding. The texture was not my favorite and it wasn't sweet enough overall, but the combination of cinnamon and pieces of fruit inside added some good flavor.  After getting our doggy bags (three courses is far too much), we headed back to our respective hotels.

I had an 11 am callback, which I originally thought was 10.  I probably should have kept thinking it was 10 because I let myself have too much relaxation time in the morning and missed out on any breakfast.  But I headed over to firm for exactly a 10:50 arrival. My tour guide was a 4L (a common term for the most recent UVA grads), which was interesting, redacted.  I'm not sure if this was a conscious choice on the part of the recruiters, but my first interviewer had a similar choice that I did before law school: whether to go into sports journalism or go to law school.  It was interesting going back over that decision with him.

Lunch was at the Continental, a cute place nearby.  I got the crab pad thai, which was delicious. I enjoyed the associates that took me out to lunch because they had little expectation of telling me anything about the firm or their job so we spent most of lunch talking about Philadelphia or the fashion choices that come from the interview or the work dress code. While I appreciate the other firms that are really trying to get any questions I have answered, it was nice they realized I probably had a good idea of the firm culture and we never had those lulls in conversation that come from both parties trying to come up with more questions.

I went back to the hotel for some work and Esther met me for some coffee and to let me use her phone charger.  I must have taken my phone cord out of my bag at some point, which is a pity because I use my phone way too much to not have one in my suitcase at all times.  I was debating being lazy all day but decided I should go to the museum and walk around in my last trip to Philadelphia for a while.

I took the Schuylkill river trail, an underrated part of Philly to the museum, walked around the Rembrandt: Faces of Christ exhibit for a while, then walked back through town.  I really enjoyed the exhibit, as well as the American art that was also in the museum.  It was interesting to me how much biblical and historical research Rembrandt did to make his scenes of Christ and how many different times he experimented with the head and face. Some scenes from the afternoon:

 The IRS building and the Amtrak station from the Schuylkill trail, with the skyscraper in the background.  Scott and I once tried to walk into the IRS building when I had an early morning train.  The buildings are next to each other and have a similar color/shape, but luckily we were stopped because we didn't have the correct badges.  We may have been seriously confused had we gotten inside!

 A cute scene near the waterworks building

 The art museum has a Friday after 5 program with jazz music and drinks. Here is this week's band, At Your Request (or something like that)

Walking back, the view of the city 

I headed back to the hotel, after a stop at B&N to buy MORE thank you notes.  I grabbed a cab to the airport and went to the US Air club lounge.  My family apparently hoarded day passes to the club back when we traveled more, so whenever I use one, the front desk attendants look awed by my vintage pass. I was having a lovely time eating dinner and chatting with the bartender about How I Met Your Mother, the TV show that was on.

I was about to head to my gate, around 30 minutes from what I thought was my departure time when I looked at my ticket and realized my flight was set to leave about 5 minutes from the current time! I sprinted to the gate without so much as a goodbye to the bartender but the doors were closed and I got to watch my plane taxi away :( The poor desk attendants had to help me change my flight as I was sobbing from exhaustion and the feeling of pure ditziness. They even lent me a phone charger so my phone wouldn't die before I could book a hotel.

I ended up spending the night at the Days Inn in Chester, PA, which wasn't as bad as it could have been for sure.  The friendly flight attendants that were also staying at the hotel suggested that I take the 7 am shuttle, instead of the 730 shuttle in case of a long line at security.  While I appreciate the suggestion, the airport was deserted this morning and I went BACK to the US Air Club. I'm pretty sure I deserved free coffee and fruit for the $69 hotel room that they cost me last night (I am positive that when I was younger, they kept track of who was in the club and when their flight would leave to try to make sure everyone got to the gate on time).

Since my flight is in about an hour, I will be heading over there soon, just to make sure that I don't miss another flight!! I'm headed to NC next week, so I will journal about those soon!

QT in the QC

This post will be significantly shorter than the last one (/three).  Today was my interview with redacted firm name in Charlotte.  This banking firm has just this year reinstated their summer program at the Charlotte office and are looking to hire 2-4 2Ls.  They are a purely transactional office, so my previous litigation experience (which is limited either way) could not help me.  I think I would need a major crash course in finance if I got the job, but it would be an interesting experience for sure.

We ate lunch at a new (?) sushi restaurant in the Epicenter, which reminded me of previous bowl game outings.  This callback was the first time that I truly had some understanding of the landscape of the town (even more so than Philly, although I am gaining that slowly) since we visit my aunt and uncle there every year and take the kids to discovery place, a science museum near the firm. After lunch, my mom drove down to visit and we mostly played around southpoint.  We hit up Barnes N Noble, where she was nice enough to let me nap for a few minutes in the comfy chairs. Apparently the naps on the airplane down and the cab to the firm weren't sufficient to make up for my 5 am wake-up call! Then we ate dinner at Firebirds before she drove me to the airport.  A definite plus of NC firms: getting to see my family more often. Apparently Mary Victoria was quite disappointed that she didn't get to make the trip with mom!

Since I knew the city too well to really be a tourist, I didn't take any pictures this trip.  In lieu of that, and in honor of MV's absence, here's what dad calls "the best dive of the year"

Three, Three, Three Posts in One: Snoozing in the City That Never Sleeps

My final escapade of this week was to my favorite city of all, New York City.

I only had a short turnaround (1030 pm one day to 5 pm the next) so not only was I exhausted, I was finding it difficult to get everything done (two classes included) and packed back up.  As a result, I was sprinting to the airport at 4:45 for my 5:15 flight.  As I'm running into the airport, the kiosk won't let me check in so I asked the guy at the counter help.  He was around the slowest typist I've ever seen and as I'm tapping my foot in nervousness, the guy next to me asks if I'm headed to LaGuardia.  I had told the USAIR rep I was on the 5:15 flight, and this was the only flight at that time (Charlottesville is tres petite) so I assumed he knew that I meant that flight but when I answered in the positive to the fellow traveller, the counter guy looked surprised.  There's no telling how high my blood pressure got when he said "oh really? oh. ok"  He then said the flight wasn't leaving until 5:45 or 6 but the screen still said it was on time so my anxiety had not lessened much.

Then security stopped me for a while because my ID no longer looks much like me.  I had long blonde hair and contacts then, and I was wearing my glasses along with my short brown hair so two people were required to ensure that it was me.  Major panic at this point, but I made it to the gate right before they started boarding.  At this point, after traveling extensively for most of my life, but particularly the last few weeks, my luggage is easily taken apart to minimize my time at x-rays.  As I got to the gate, I realized about half of the plane had to be UVA folk, particularly from Section A (for whom Scott was a PA) and my good friend Esther.  So it was nice to catch up on the plane, the only form of socializing many of us will do in the next few weeks.

I checked into my hotel at the Hilton Times Square, after sharing a cab with a fellow Wahoo who was also interviewing with redacted firm but staying at a different hotel.  Fashion Week and the US Open were all in NYC at that time so accommodations were hard to come by. I grabbed dinner at a deli nearby and met my friend Carly from undergrad who is living and working in the city.  Since that night was Fashion's Night Out, many of the stores were open late and if we had gone up 5th a bit further we could have met a few celebs.  Alas, my hotel was between 7th and 8th and even the part of 5th that we made it to was not the busy section so we had no Bieber or Glee cast sightings.  Maybe next time :)

The callback itself was at 2 the next afternoon so for once I got to sleep in.  I found it ironic that in the center of Times Square, I slept in later than I had in probably a month.  The heavy curtains served me well in that hotel room.  My hotel was literally next door to Madame Tussaud's and nearby to the theaters of the Mary Poppins and Spiderman musicals.

When I was leaving for the interview, I was a bit concerned that the "credible terrorist threats"would delay me either in the interview or on the plane so close to the 10th anniversary of 9/11 but they didn't seem to bother much (I was in walking distance of the firm).  It was interesting to me how legitimate businesses were in the height of touristy Times Square.  It really reminded me of the song 42nd street from the same-named Broadway show.  Where the Underworld can meet the Elite, 42nd Street.

I have been interested in Firm for some time now, having done research on them (a big redacted practice area firm) and they did not disappoint.  I was expecting, and definitely got, some questions making sure I knew there was actual law involved in so-called practice area (not actually a practice area, just denotes the kind of clients involved) but I am still incredibly excited to hear back from them.  While I was in the recruiter's office, her phone rang canceling the recruiting committee meeting for that night, but that means my thank you notes (a Southern girl requirement) will get to the firm before they make a decision about me.  I am not letting it upset me that I know friends with offers, because my firms have been on different timelines, but I keep having to tell myself that so I won't freak out!

The flight back was equally inundated with UVA future lawyers, including some new ones, like my teammate from the NOLA baseball competition, Denise, a dear sectionmate, Galen, and Scott's roommate's ladyfriend. It makes for a relaxing flight, even with delays and extra security, when you are surrounded by people you know.  One particularly humorous 2L was cracking jokes when we had to sit on the tarmac for a while, like suggesting we play I SPY while we wait.  It is always nice to defuse stressful situations with people you know and love :)

Pictures from my hotel window:

Three, Three, Three Posts in One: Philadelphia

After getting back from Alexandria on Monday, I almost immediately turned around and flew to Philadelphia (after an awkward video conference with redacted firm in NC, home of well-known sports personality). I had an interview with redacted firm (former firm of person I know) on Wednesday.  I really enjoyed meeting everyone there. It is a top-ranked redacted practice area firm, which is what I'm looking for overall so I am looking forward to hearing back from them.

While there I stayed at the Palomar, part of the Kimpton hotel chain, which was nice, but a little too modern for me. Here is a sampling of the artwork in the hotel:

 Ben obviously cheered for the Phils

All the elevators were made to look like fireplaces and this one had a lovely lady with a mustache 

 This one was located near the restaurant where I ate breakfast, which I would have enjoyed a lot more if it weren't for the French techno blaring the whole time

The outline of this was all words, then the "my, she was yar" ending. So confusing.

After my interview and lunch at Matyson with some associations (I'd recommend the mussels), I again decided to tour around Philly some.

I had wanted to tour city hall last time, since the Phlash tour had advertised it. However, the room to sign up for the tours was very hidden so I spent a lot of time walking through the courtyard of city hall a lot trying to figure things out. Another PSA: Philly City Hall Courtyard has a distinct smell that someone recently urinated there. Ick. I did eventually figure out the tour, but I had an hour until the tower tour began so I went to Reading Terminal Market, which was recommended by two of my interviewers.  When I got back, I couldn't find the door they told me to go in, of course! So I was late but luckily the elevator man took pity on me.  I was with a group of native Pennsylvanians and some French friends of theirs that were visiting.  I desperately tried to understand what they were saying on the rides up and down but all I understood was when they let me off the elevator. The man said "apres vous" (after you, a phrase my mom utilizes frequently) so I at least got to respond with a nice "merci" but that was the extent to which I practiced my French.  I determined that the next road trip I have (a callback to Raleigh), I will find some French tapes to practice :)

The tour took us up to the very top of the tower of city hall, which is high above Philadelphia and right in the center so it was fun to see all around and try to find places I had been. Some scenes from the top:

 The exhibit talking about city hall showed the disparity between opinions of the building. This one calls it "perhaps the greatest single effort of late 19th century American architecture"...

 And this one calls it "an ugly monstrosity" and "the most disreputable and direspected building in Philadelphia"

 Leading up to the Philly Museum of Art

 Gazing up to William Penn, the statue at the top of city hall

 Various game pieces decorate this square

Part of city hall's outside

On my way back down the elevator to the bottom, I saw this scene (stairs of city hall), which was frequently shown on the show Philly as a hub of activity, but definitely saw less action the day I was there. (You mean everything isn't exactly as seen on TV?!)

Three, Three, Three Posts in One: Alexandria

The last week has been pure madness so instead of trying to separate my thoughts too much, I'm writing them all today before I forget.  Get prepared for lots of updates...

Alexandria
After spending my entire summer in Alexandria, which is not one of my favorite cities, I was not completely enthused to go back.  But I had a wedding to attend and was actually pleasantly surprised by the city.  As a PSA, don't try to find free wifi there, it is sparse.

We went to my favorite Greek place on King Street for a late dinner the first night I was there, which was a lot of fun with the whole group of bridal party and dates (minus the bride and groom).

Saturday was filled with wine tastings, at Dry Mill, 29 Vines, and Quattro Goomba. 29 Vines was in a town whose actions prompted my first major memo at the law firm I worked for this summer, so I had got nerdily excited about actually being there. Pictures from the wine tours:

Age gets better with wine, and other similarly-themed signs/magnets

 Redneck wine glass: a mason jar with a stem

 The set up at Quattro Goomba

 Random entertainment: the other Tar Heel on the trip got him to play Carolina in my Mind

Wine slushies with the bride and groom

That night was a bridal party dinner at the hotel, then drinks at Joe Theismann's with my new friends (girls at weddings tend to make BFFs quickly) :)

The wedding was the next day, at the George Washington Memorial Mason Lodge.  It's an interesting building, so much so that when my parents and Scott were in town over the summer, we could see it from my parent's hotel and we were so intrigued we had to look up what it was.

It was my first Jewish wedding which was interesting to see all the traditions.  The best part was what was called, according to my best Jewish friend Carly, the "schtick" (a frequently-used Yiddish word, I just never knew where it originated).  After the typical circle dance and the chair raising, the bride and groom sat in chairs on the dance floor and guests tried to entertain them.  Carly said sometimes this involves silly hats and comedy, but this schtick mostly consisted of dancing.  Two guests were proficient at the typical Russian dance (it hurt my quads just watching) and some guests did a red rover type game where they linked arms and ran at each other.

I enjoyed the wedding theme of the Rat Pack, all of the tables were named after songs or nicknames of Frank Sinatra (we sat at the "Chairman of the Board" table) and many of the songs were big band or rat pack songs.  Some pictures of the wedding:

 At the beginning of the ceremony, the bride circles the groom 7 times (representing the 7 days of creation or the 7 blessings of a wedding) under the chuppah (the structure representing the house the couple will build together)

 First dance

 Circle dance: men

 Circle dance: women

 Schtick

 Cutting the cake with a WWII bayonet (the groom is big into weaponry, he gave all the groomsmen knifes for a present and his engagement present was a gun)

 Of course there's a giant head of George Washington

The Temple lit up at night