New York

Hailing a taxi, which is actually pretty fun. It gives you a power rush to raise your hand and bam! Taxis screech to a stop.


Sorry I haven't posted in so long. My lab decided to give me increased responsibilities so I went from doing nothing to working seven day weeks, 16+ hour days (without time to even eat lunch) in addition to classes and other SURF required stuff. I'd like to think I'm not lazy but barely having time to sleep, shower, or eat was not fun. I was wondering which was more like the life of a grad student. Neither is really that favorable it seems. Now it's crunch time. I present to my lab tomorrow and we do another poster presentation on Tuesday, this time to the professors in the department. I have a paper due before I leave, and I fly out on Wednesday back to Boise for a few days.

Tuesday of last week I was sent home because I was too sick to work and was contaminating everyone's stuff. I get back to the room to realize my two roommates were also sent home. We had a sick day together. I thought I was going to die. It went away 24 hours later though.

Last weekend we went to see Eric Huchinson at an outdoor concert in Woodstock, Vermont. I don't know what it is about outdoor concerts, but they make me feel more well-rounded and deep. The Sixers opened for him and they were like any punk band. Then this nerdy, white boy gets on stage playing the piano in an all white suit with white, alligator-skin shoes, a stripped shirt, and a polka-dotted tie. His style was that of most alternative singers, but more jazzy. He had someone on the sax and he was playing the piano most of the time. Amorette took us three girls and her husband. Poor him. It was all girls singing, dancing, and idolizing this guy and he was just sitting there thinking he'd rather be anywhere else.

New York:
We drove down to NYC with Ruth's (my roommate)sister. Her sister's boyfriend knows New York very well and he was our personal tour guide to Manhattan. The drive was about 4.5 hours. We had to work on Friday so we didn't end up getting to Manhattan until about 9pm. When the hotel said only two per room and we thought they were just trying to rip us off and had the three of us in our room, but when we walked in we realized that that was for our own good. Besides the queen bed, there was about 1 foot on each side and that was our room. I ended up sleeping on the floor. We had late dinner reservations at a Japanese fusion restaurant. It was very upscale, seeing that it was located in Trump Tower. I had asparagus on a stick and Kobe beef. The beef was amazing. Even with small portions, you still get really full.

The next morning we got up and walked to Union Square and Madison Square Garden, picking up breakfast on the way. We walked to Time Square and Bryant Park- famous for fashion week. Time Square was slightly disappointing. However, we did see where the Morning Show and TRL are filmed.

We met up with Lilly's boyfriend for lunch and stopped at the Empire State Building on the way. He told us to go to a NY style pizza place which was AMAZING. We walked to Ground Zero. It's so weird. An empty spot in the middle of a bunch of skyscrapers. They are making it into a memorial..... and mall. Mourning + capitalism. From there we walked to China Town. It was really crowded and they were yelling at tourists to buy knock off purses and bootleg CDs.

We took the subway a few times. I hadn't really experienced what the study abroad program refers to as "reverse culture shock," but being in NY made me compare it to other big cities I have traveled to. I was considering applying to graduate schools in NY, I realized that there are other big cities that are closer to home that have similar charm.


We also went to Battery Park where you can see the Statue of Liberty. We were far away but I still thought it would be bigger. After walking about 10 miles we went back to the hotel to get ready for the Broadway musical, Marry Poppins. We got all dressed up and caught a taxi to the theater and met up with Ruth's sister and her boyfriend.

The play was amazing! There was singing, dancing, and at one point Bert was tap-dancing upside down on the ceiling of the theater. At the end Mary Popping flew up into the audience. We were on the balcony and she flew right in front of us. After the play, we went to a Mexican restaurant where the food was once again amazing! We poured into bed at about 1am. I loved eating at 10-11 at night.

The next morning we went out to breakfast at a really good diner that Danny recommended. Then we were off to Central Park and Central Park Zoo. We walked by the Plaza hotel and could tell that we were in an area with money, the cars parked in front of that hotel were very nice. Then we walked to Rockefeller Center and 5th Avenue. Since we all had lab work to get back to, we left at about 2. After all that walking the day before and Sunday, we were exhausted! All in all, I'm glad I had the experience.


Ahh the New York Times