Rang in the New Year trapped in a London hotel room with Vanisha. She was in Oxford for a study abroad program for two weeks, and I was spending the month in Europe in between semesters. We were going to spend a few days together in London, but I tested positive for COVID after landing in the UK and trapped her with me. Whoops, sorry!
After London, I took the train by myself to Scotland and stayed in Edinburgh for a few days. Saw sheep in snowy meadows. Could barely understand anyone. Thick Scottish accents are hard to understand at first!
Flew to Amsterdam, and amid omicron, it was illegal for me to enter The Netherlands from the UK, but I didn't realize this until after my trip, and no one stopped me (?). Amsterdam was completely dead and locked down. I stayed in a 16-bed dorm at a hostel and only one other bed was taken. I went running every morning and took advantage of the city's stunning trail infrastructure. I could take a 10-minute subway and then a 10-minute bus ride, and be practically in the middle of nowhere, running past farms, yet still on a paved bike trail. I wish New York was like that.
Spent 3 weeks in Dresden, Germany. I lived in Dresden when I was 8, so it was great to reconnect with a city I love. I stayed in a village outside the city, on a homestead with a family of 5 and their dogs and chickens.
I am a huge fan of the transit infrastructure in Germany, and I felt like a kid again riding the Dresden trams to random destinations and watching the train operator through the window behind them. I wanted to grow up to be a tram driver when I was 8 (and still see myself doing that eventually, probably in NY though!).
One of my favorite things to do while traveling is visiting grocery stores. The upscale, the normal, and the cheap ones. You can learn so much about a culture just by seeing what the average person eats. A grocery store is like a practical museum for food, and the bonus is you get to eat, too.
Flew back to NY in February and went back to Edyfi, the amazing coliving house on the Upper East Side.
Relaunched a new version of Routeshuffle, my website for generating random fitness routes. I completely rewrote and redesigned everything. It's the culmination of almost 5 years of on-and-off research and work. The new routing algorithm generates routes closer to the distance you specify, and prioritizes green space. I know that Routeshuffle will always be a constant in my life, and I love that I can combine my interests in running, maps, and coding to help people move and make money.
Flew to Tucson in March to attend OpenStreetMap US's State of the Map conference. Much of my work on Routeshuffle depends on OSM, and it was great to connect with like-minded people in the mapping community. Then went to LA for a day. Walked from Santa Monica to LAX because I didn't want to pay for an Uber.
Read this article about how in NYC, you can film trucks that illegally idle for 3+ minutes, send it to the government, and claim a quarter of the money the city gets from fining the owner. This is positively impacting the air quality and is lucrative for video submitters. (Shoutout to Mehran for forwarding the article.) I've filmed over 500 videos since then, and sort of stumbled into a micro-culture of other people that use this law. The law also makes for a great discussion about ethics and how extreme laws should be that target climate change.
Biked 101 miles (my first century!) from New York to Philadelphia. The whole experience was a blur (as these endurance physical feats usually are for me). Visited my cousin, Justin, at Temple University. Took a scenic route and was in a rural part of New Jersey for a large part of the ride.
Took Professor Ted Widmer's class on climate change innovation in NYC. My final project visualized the delivery zones of 15-minute delivery apps in the city, and how they save time, money, and emissions by using e-bikes.
Hosted a few Friday night dinners at Edyfi, and cooking for others (and hosting in general) is a gratifying experience.
Figured out you can get very close to the Met Gala red carpet by riding a bike down Fifth Avenue in the right lane. Went out with Mayank, Vivian, and Tasha, and pedaled as slowly as we possibly could through the chaos. Got yelled at for biking too slowly.
A small group of us living at Edyfi tried to take over and extend the house's lease for three more months through the summer. We ultimately failed, mostly for not communicating with Edyfi's landlord enough and not pushing to sign a lease faster. First-hand learned the lesson that nothing is final until it's on paper and signed.
Unable to extend our lease, Edyfi ended in May. Was a bittersweet moment leaving the house. I had lived there for an entire year, by far the longest tenure of any member in the house. I got to live with over 60 talented, friendly, incredible people. Late-night conversations, game nights, impromptu coding collaborations, and plenty of random adventures. Thank you to Ben and Luke for creating Edyfi and pushing through the inevitable hurdles that came with managing it. I owe so much of what I have to that house.
Moved in with Vanisha for the summer in a studio, still on the Upper East Side. My first time living with someone I'm dating. Had some inevitable bumps but was a nice experience, getting to wake up with someone I love.
Spent the summer as a web intern at Tendies, working with Jack and Daniel. Learned a lot and was great to be back working in an office every day.
Went on 3 different hikes along the Hudson River during the summer with 3 different groups. Will repeat this over and over, Storm King is the most beautiful mountain (had the pleasure of biking it last summer and hiking across the river from it this summer)
Put up a fake street sign on an unnamed alley and the name I chose is already on Google Maps
Moved into Hack Lodge in Brooklyn for a week before classes started back up. With Abhijit and Darren, we built Hopscotch.nyc, a website for finding which neighborhoods to move to in New York. Had the best time living with 20 other college students. Liked the extended hackathon model, and how it was collaborative and not competitive.
Moved into Baruch's dorms in Midtown.
In October, walked by a weed truck whose big LED displays were in setup mode. Spent 15 minutes reading broken English manuals online to put my own message up (hint) and somehow the sign is still up now (???)
Ran for my school's D3 cross-country program. Ran a 28:56 (sub 6 minutes per mile) 8k, and ran at the D3 regionals meet way up in Rochester. In the process of getting an indoor and outdoor track club started at Baruch with Daniel, Julia, and Amy.
A GameBoy game Robert and I developed for MSCHF finally launched, premiering at MSCHF's first solo show at the Perrotin Gallery. BTS In Battle pictures how the boy band BTS may have served their mandatory military service for the South Korean military. The first day broke the record for the most attended opening reception of any art show. So cool to see people play something I put months of late nights into.
Biked over 130 miles in one day, from Midtown Manhattan to Montauk. It was freezing all-day and dark the last few hours, but I've been meaning to check it off my bucket list for several years. Thanks, Caleb for joining me!
Created Fast Food Index, a site for comparing the prices of four different fast food chains across the country. Was able to retrieve pricing data by reverse engineering the chains' mobile apps. Got some buzz on Twitter and an article in Business Insider.
Got called into the dean's office for "fraudulent posting"
Started planning what will be, if we're able to pull it off next year, a stunt for the books in NYC.
Spent Christmas with family upstate, and flew with them to Lisbon to ring in the new year. Feeling very grateful for everything I have now.