How I won a free trip to Jamaica - Part 3

October 08, 2014 by Jesse Hsu in Trip Report

I still don't know how it happened. I set 4 alarms for my morning flight on June 13 yet there I was, staring at 5 missed calls and multiple text messages confirming the worst outcome: I was about to miss my flight to Montego Bay unless I was able to get to JFK from Wall Street in 13 minutes. Feeling unusually calm, I was able to rebook the flight for the next day. That night, I set 6 alarms.

How I won a free trip to Jamaica - Part 2

August 29, 2014 by Jesse Hsu in Restaurant, Party

Ok, let’s run it again from the chorus: “Everything little thing I do...pow pow, never seems enough for you….5-6-turn, 7-8, pause. You don’t wanna…”

With a Grand Prize of a Jamaica trip on the line, JKP, Brad and I were focused. It was a late Saturday afternoon and we were blasting NSync’s “It’s Gonna Be May” at full volume in my basement gym. After watching the NSync YouTube video, we broke down the choreography the best we could and ran it a few times. Luckily, the gym was empty and nobody walked in on us. After our last run-through, we looked in the mirror, caught our breath and laughed at the ridiculousness of it all. We would soon find out if it was good enough for 1st place.

How I won a free trip to Jamaica - Part 1

August 21, 2014 by Jesse Hsu in Manhattan, Restaurant, Party

"Yeah mon! Welcome to Jamaica, would you like a cold bottle of Red Stripe and some plantains?" yelled the bartender above the clanging of steel drums and blasting of trumpet.

We were in NYC, 1500 miles away from Jamaica in the middle of a loft once owned by Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat in the 80’s.

Just minutes ago, after ducking into a non-descript entrance and walking down a dimly lit hall, we found ourselves in the middle of a reggae dance party.