camera awesome or my family is finally here

i have some great news to share!

i can't even express how happy i am...

my mom and my youngest sister are here in new york! 

we haven't hugged each other in several years!!!(we've been talking on skype quite often though while apart).

it's quite awesome to have my family finally gathering together. 

as i and askhad running around new york in all our spare time showing the city to mom and sis, we take great amount of touristic pictures in places which are a "must see" for everyone visiting new york...  

i am going to upload our pictures soon;)

recently i've come across a nice application on the iphone -"camera awesome" which is partially free and here are some of the results:   

1001 nights

hope you had a great weekend and start of the week!
mine started with a busy day in the outpatient clinic where i had morning and evening sessions.  the whole day was spent in the medical office seeing patients and discussing cases with attending.

after work i went to yoga class at sonicyoga and it was awesome (recently i've been going there only once per week and by chance it is always monday).

since half marathon is around the corner, i try to get as much runs in central park as my schedule allows...and sacrifice my yoga (i surely lost almost all my flexibility and my hamstrings are as tight as they could ever be).

over the weekend we had a great meeting with our tatar friends. thanks to mansur, who organized the party  and gathered us together. this time we were pleasantly surprised that so many people from tristate area have showed up. it was awesome to see old friends and meet new in such a cozy place as 1001 nights located in brooklyn. we all agreed on that particular place since it offered  authentic middle eastern menu very close to tatar national cuisine (samsa, pilaf, lagman, manty) for a very reasonable price.

i want to share with some of the pictures taken that evening:

 the whole crew posing outside)

  beautiful liliya that we met the first time and right away became friends

 alsu and leysen - we were so lucky that day to meet such an interesting and talented people.

those two girls have such a nice sense of humour!

   leylochka and guzel both very charming and beautiful young ladies. 

 renat, leana and kamil - have the most beautiful smiles ever!!!

  askhad and rasikh. 

 me and liliya again

kamil and leana

 bulat and radik

 beautiful couple- rasikh and leysen

  finally, gentelman wearing the blue shirt is mansur (thanks again for gathering us)!!!!

 talhat and renat

belly dancing

ruslan was charmed by a belly dancer) 

renat

and yet another surprise-his name is also askhad!

tea drinking of course a hit! 

after party most of us went to dance in the nearby lounge.

i want to say thank you again for such a wonderful evening we all spent together!!!!

lining up to the barre or "down an inch, up an inch!"

happy 1st day of spring! (though outside feels like its autumn now -two days of continuous  grey skies and rainy drizzle here in new york...)

we all want to look beautiful after long winter and may be bring in some sports and physical activity in our lives as we approach the warm seasons...

 and what girl would not dream about ballerina's body- lean legs, amazing posture, strong core and arms, graceful movements...  in the search of this shape we are lining up at the barre at ballet-based workout studios or classes in chain gyms (which are plenty in new york). 

Source: wabisabi-style.blogspot.com via Elvina on Pinterest

 i went to core fusion class yesterday  at exhale spa, an hour- long, intense class that "fuses" pilates,  Lotte Berk method, yoga, barre workout and orthopedic stretching and claims to produce "long, lean muscles and a strong, flexible, youthful body".  

getting ready...

the class overall focused on four body parts — arms, abdomen, gluteal muscles and thighs.  we started with a quick warm up and proceeded with arm exercises- push ups and light-weight lifts followed by arm stretches. then we were off to the barre. we did various exercises targeting thighs and butt- very precise and small movements (requiring proper alignment), that specifically tone the muscles without adding mass.  squats in a grand plié position with raised heels, were so intense that they  made my muscles shake and burn within minutes.  next we were working on core, which was also very intense and today i feel all my abdominal muscles.  we finished off with a great deal of stretching again. 

and music  during class was fantastic- high tempo soundtracks definitely kept us going. 

great class, not that sweaty, would be going there quite often, one minus- it is expensive :(

"seven henrietta street"

recently fell in love with this video by kinga burza made for kate spade ny.
so romantic....
hope you'll like it too



xoxo, elvina.

chelsea market

hope you had a wonderful weekend and  monday and tuesday and …wednesday !

i was off sunday and we did a bit of shopping at chelsea market and here are some pictures taken with iphone using my favorite instagram application. 

that's how many different stores located under the roof of chelsea market

 if i  ever will need new york- themed souvenirs-i definitely will get them from chelsea market's little stores, the items here are so much better quality then those sold at times square.

 listening to life performance right in the hallway made me really happy

 one of the best coffee places (did i tell how much i love coffee?)

 these sign never cease to cheer me up

 'dog show' exhibit all over the walls at chelsea market - pictures featuring dogs and pet owners,

 yet another bakery store

 and what i love most- 'pop up stores' featuring young designers  (everything from jewelry to clothes)

 as seen in antropologie store

 those lobsters are quiet impressive (i am vegetarian but could not resist taking this picture) 

 seafood at lobster's place

yesterday I finished being on service on team "a" – special team in our hospital that takes care of hiv- infected patients. the whole team consists of attending, social worker, pharmacist and two medical teams- junior and senior with one resident and two interns in each. i was leading the senior team.  my two interns were awesome and though towards the end of two weeks our team gradually turned into geriatric (we were carrying more geriatric private patients  from nursing homes on our  list then actually hiv patients) , we really  had a great time working together and accomplished a lot.

 today i was already off to outpatient clinic (we have  two weeks of outpatient internal medicine after every six weeks of ward rotations)  and  those two weeks are going to be lighter with the opportunity to wake up a bit later in the morning (i am not an early- bird person and usually go to bed late). 

at the 'whole foods' (market)  today i saw this: 

it's just made my day...those chocolate pieces looked a lot like serious prescribed medications in the bottles from pharmacy. 

so next time i will prescribe chocolate to patients :   

 Mr X

Rx: chocolate pieces PRN q4-6 h per day

        to cheer up.

Dispo # 1 bottle. 

Refills: #5.

but if you into something spicy- this is a good one!

 or salty

 have a wonderful and chocolaty end of the week!

(as prescribed by the doctor)

Valentine's day

ahhh, i think it's such a romantic day...if there were no such a thing as tons of chocolate wrapped in the red color and red roses and stuffed toys holding red hearts.... a bit too much

 i spent v's  day evening (right after work) listening to the lecture on the "awesome review" course in preparation for the internal medicine boards.  

i already know the day of my exam - august 15th and very glad that i will be over with it by my birthday...

we do need to prepare in advance, since im boards cover quite extensive field of medicine. 

when i finally got home  from that course askhad met me with my favorite flowers- orchids and homemade dinner.

 we enjoyed watching a bit of the tv show- "pan am" before falling asleep past midnight.  

i was getting a lot of flowers and love notes and texts on the phone from askhad this week, so i can even  call it a valentine's week for a good sake.