And one last sunrise pic

And sunrise 20 min later...

Mika Concert 4

Mika Concert 3

Mika Concert 2

Mika Concert 1

View of sunrise out my window

Brooklyn Follies

A couple of weeks ago, before school started, I went to a bookstore in Soho, McNally Jackson (for some reason used as the NYU bookstore on Gossip Girl this season, even though it's nowhere near school...) One of the books that they had on display as a Staff Recommendation was a book that I had recently seen at the NYU library. So I headed back to campus to take out this book. It took me awhile to finish it, mostly cus school started and I got super busy, but it was pretty good. It's the story of Nathan Glass who returns to Brooklyn to essentially die, after surviving cancer. Once there though, his family keeps creeping back into his life, essentially saving him from achieving his goal of dying in Brooklyn. He saves them along the way too. It was a pretty good read and was really cool cus I know I'm familiar with that area of Brooklyn so whenever he was on, say, 7th ave, I would know exactly what he was talking about. It was full of lots of quirky and interesting characters, so I would definitely recommend it for a quick read (unless you're me, and then it might be a long read...

Oh yeah, the book is called "Brooklyn Follies" and is written by Paul Auster.

Hair!

So yesterday I was filing stuff in the Student Council office, when I got a phone call from the Dean's assistant asking me if I wanted to go see Hair that night. I of course jumped at the chance (Broadway is expensive, don't say no if you get offered a free ticket...) even though I know like nothing about the show, other than that they're hippies. Anyways, the show was AMAZING - so much fun and dancing and music (aquarius and let the sun shine in are their well-known songs) and incredible voices. They kept running into the crowd to rub your hair or throw their pants at you or give you daisies. And at the end they invite everyone to come onstage and dance with them and the Dean was front and center, dancing her head off and singing. It was quite an unexpected night of fun.

I've embedded a video of them doing my favorite song at the Tony Awards:

Timekeeper

So while trying to avoid writing my paper that's due tomorrow, I found this really great video profile in the New York Times. I can't figure out how to embed the video, but you should check out the link. This guy is one of the millions of tiny reasons that makes NYU such a great, enjoyable, quirky school and EVERYONE who goes here knows who he is.

http://video.nytimes.com/video/2009/04/07/nyregion/1194839284126/a-shepherd-for-students-at-nyu.html

Shh!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Dragon_Society

Dinner with the Parents

Both Mom and Dad were in town for business yesterday, so we all went out to dinner. It took me like an hour to pick a place, but I finally did and then today I was looking through the WSN, which is NYU's newspaper, and what did I find but a review of that exact restaurant! Small world... Anyways, I've posted the article for your reading pleasure:

http://www.nyunews.com/#/life/2009/sep/15/caffe/?ref=ajax

My Fun-Filled Sunday!

Today I went to dim sum with my friend Sara and another friend of hers. It was my first real adventure out into Chinatown (except when I went to the Chinatown Ice Cream Factory with a friend the other night, which is a famous ice cream store, but it doesn't really feel like it counts because it's not really Chinese...). We went to a restaurant called the Golden Unicorn which the other 2 had been to before. I'm kind of scared to try restaurants around here just because I feel like they will be hit or very big miss, so it was nice knowing that this place was a good one. We shared a table with two other random people and the servers wheel carts around to the tables and you just point at what you want and they give it to you. It was so delicious and really cheap and we ended up eating a ridiculous amount of dumplings and sesame balls and other Chinese food. I will definitely be returning.

Then, to put off our homework for a little more, we went to the Highline, which is this old elevated railroad that's been converted into a cool park. It's awesome and has a view of the Hudson River, as well as these cool deck chairs that you can lie on and suntan. Oh and some of the deck chairs are actually on the railroad tracks and have wheels, so you can roll back and forth a little bit. So we "did our homework" (people watched) there.

And then I finished off my night by going to my friend's apartment to watch the season finale of True Blood. Her buzzer broke yesterday so she was standing outside waiting for us, but my roommate and I were late because the train never came, and when it finally did, it was a local, so then we switched to an express and got off at the closest stop and took a cab which then proceeded to not turn down the right street so we just got out and ran. It was an experience. But her roommate makes homemade pie for True Blood watching and it was so amazing. I can't even begin to describe it to you. It was actually a recipe from "Waitress" which is this really cute/slightly heartbreaking movie starring Keri Russel and she makes pies and dreams up new recipes. This one is called the Lonely Chicago Pie and has blackberries, raspberries and strawberries, covered in chocolate. Soooo good. Makes me want to take up pie baking. New York should really get over it's love of cupcakes and rediscover the pie. I'm calling it: the next big dessert is going to be pie!

And now I have to do all the homework I didn't do this weekend...

New school year, new student council bulletin board!

This is what I did today:

Big Gay Ice Cream Truck

Went to the Big Gay Ice Cream Truck last night which another new specialty food from a truck place. This one is a normal Mister Softee truck but the guy that owns it has all kinds of crazy specialty toppings for his soft serve - think pumpkin butter, Ginger syrup, olive oil and sea salt, crushed graham crackers, the list goes on and on and changes daily. I got a ginger milkshake, the first one he had ever made and while it was good, there wasn't enough ginger in it for me.
I'm interested in seeing what else he comes up with so I'll probably be back again.

Housing Works

I went to this really awesome comedy show at Housing Works Cafe on Tuesday night. My old roommate, Emily, has been a Housing Works volunteer for the past year and I never really knew what it was until this week. Housing Works is an organization that donates all of its funds to provide housing and social services for New Yorkers living with HIV and AIDS. They have a bunch of thrift stores around the city, as well as this bookstore/cafe and it's almost all volunteer run.

Anyways, they do free comedy shows all the time and the one I saw was the last installment in a special series of summer comedy shows, called "Staycation." It was really great and I can't honestly remember the names of the comedians that performed, but they were much more impressive than I was expecting for a free show - one of them was just hired to be a new SNL writer, another is on the Comedy Central show "Michael and Michael Have Issues," another just filmed his Comedy Central special, the list goes on... It was a super enjoyable night and my cheeks hurt at the end from laughing so hard. And I got to see Emily, Dianne, and Pat for the first time all summer, which was great! I definitely plan on attending more shows and exploring the bookstore and thrift stores some more.

2 WEEKS UNTIL THE STUDENT COUNCIL WELCOME WEEK BLOCK PARTY!!

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

In the Loop

I saw "In the Loop" last night (I've been seeing a lot of movies this summer for some reason), which is a British comedy that is based on a show called "The Thick of It." Basically it's about whether or not the UK and America should declare war on the Middle East and it's a comedy. The movie was okay, funny at times though not "a gut-achingly hilarious farce" as the previews promised, and the ending was a total let down. Maybe it's because we're used to super happy endings where the good guy wins and the bad guy gets what he deserves, but the end of this movie was kind of a downer, just warning you. There were some pretty great insults in the movie though, including calling someone "the Nazi Julie Andrews," so if anything, you can enjoy that. Oh, and remember the girl from "My Girl"? Well she's in this and all grown up!

Pier I Cafe

Went to this cafe on 70th street with some friends the other night and it was really cool. So basically, if you're walking on the street, at 68th street you will come upon this giant staircase and ramp that will take you down to the water where there are lots of bikers, runners, a pier, a great view of Jersey, and this cafe. It's self serve and the food is pretty good, but the real appeal is that there are a ton of tables where you can just hang out and look at the water. It was really nice and even though NYC is an island, this is the first real waterfront restaurant that I've been too. Anyways, this is what it looked like:

Paris to the Moon

I just finished reading Adam Gopnik's book "Paris to the Moon." I originally found this book at Dad's house during Winter Break and started reading it, but didn't finish before I had to go back to school. Then when I was home over the summer, I found it again, this time on Mom's bookshelf and decided to take it. It's a collection of essays that Adam Gopnik, a writer for The New Yorker, wrote when he and his wife decided to move to Paris for 5 years with their baby son because they knew if they didn't do it then, they never would. I really enjoyed the book, mostly because of the anecdotes about his son, who is thoroughly entertaining. Also, I loved just being able to relate to the places he went to and the experiences he had as an American in Paris, although he was there from 1995-2000, so some of the stuff is outdated. So even though this one took me a long time to read (over half a year) it was still really good. And I finished it yesterday and had a dream last night about going back to my homestay in Paris for another semester abroad, weird...

Paper Heart

I saw this new movie with Charlyne Yi and Michael Cera the other day. I think it started as a documentary but turned into a fictional documentary (I hesitate to use the word "mockumentary" because that always sounds like they're mocking the documentary, which they weren't really). Anyways, Charlyne claims she doesn't believe in love and sets out across America to interview people about their views on love. She visits high school sweethearts, scientists, bikers, romance novelists, little kids on playgrounds, but somewhere along the way, she finds herself in a relationship with Michael Cera (they are perfectly awkward together), but is she in love? Of course there was only one way to find out: go to Paris. The movie was cute, but kind of left me wanting more or at least wanting it to be true since Michael Cera is an actual movie star and he played himself in the movie. Oh, and I really wish that Charlyne had brushed her hair. Just once.

Moving!

So I moved into my new dorm for the school year last Saturday. I'm now living in Lafayette, which is a dorm (surprise!) on Lafayette Street, and is at the bottom of Chinatown. I had a horrible moving experience that involved the street being closed (thanks for notifying me, NYU!), a cop literally screaming in me that he had no time to talk to me and that I needed to keep moving, a surly security guard, a sassy student checking me into my new room, a street fair that caused a traffic backup, and the world's hottest day ever. I'm living in a 6-person suite, in a 2-person bedroom with my friend Kelsey who doesn't get here for another 2 weeks and while we have the best room because it comes with a closet and our own bathroom, the room itself is the smallest that I've lived in since being in NYU housing, not to mention I'm incredibly confused as to how 6 girls are going to share 1 fridge, about 7 cabinets and absolutely zero counter space in the kitchen. So that will be...interesting. While I've been moved in for almost a week now, I'm still not even close to unpacked, mostly because I'm trying to figure out where I can fit all my stuff, but good news: I bought closet organizing material at Kmart yesterday, since this closet is about 1/4 of the closet space I've had before. On the plus side, I'm actually enjoying the neighborhood more than I thought I would (well, I mean I haven't actually done much in Chinatown yet, but it's not as annoying as expected and I'm looking forward to some cheap meals of dumplings or something) and the walk from school is actually only about 20 minutes through SoHo and surprisingly nice. I get to see lots of very nicely dressed people, which I always enjoy. So that's about it, pictures to come once I've actually set up my room.

:(

Tomorrow's the last day of my internship. It went by so fast and I'm going to miss it and the other interns a ton. We close out our time there by giving presentations in front of like 55 important people in the company plus other people that work there too. Scary...

Harry Potter...twice

I dragged Lindsay to the opening night of Harry Potter and we got there at 10:30 and the line was already around the block just to get into the midnight showing. We toughed it out though and actually got great seats. Unfortunately, due to the late hour at which we saw the movie, I kinda feel asleep a little at the end.

AND THEN I got to see it for free when my mentor at work gave me a pair of tickets. It was still good the second time.

Here's what I think about it: It was much funnier than the other movies (not funny, but funnier). There was a ton of teenage romance, more so than I remember there being in the book. As a movie by itself, it was good, but it really didn't focus much on what the book was about. Despite the fact that it's called "The Half Blood Prince" there was literally 3 mentions of the half blood prince during the movie.

Okay, I'm gonna go read the last book now and wait expectantly for the final movies...

The Dark Lantern

Took out this book by Gerri Brightwell from the NYU library. It was an okay read, nothing that I would rave about, but entertaining. It's the story of a maid who comes from the English countryside to work in a house in Victorian London. But of course, everyone in the household has secrets of their own...duh duh duhhhhh! Anyways, like I said before, it kept me entertained but I have NO IDEA why it's called the Dark Lantern. Not too many lanterns, let alone dark lanterns...

Public Enemies

I got to see a free private screening of the movie, Public Enemies. It's Jonny Depp's new movie about John Dillinger, a criminal in the thirties. I enjoyed it but I think a lot of people were left feeling a little disappointed by the ending. It was based on a true story, so the end wasn't all guns blazing and elaborate plotting. The one thing that annoyed me was Marion Cotillard because she was supposed to have an American accent but it was so clearly a French person trying really hard to have an American accent. It would have been better if they just let her be French.

So my opinion is: glad I saw it but also glad I didn't pay for it.

Regis and Kelly!!

I got to go to a taping of Regis and Kelly the other morning with all of the interns. It was pretty awesome.

The set from our second row seats. It's tiny.

But Kelly is even tinier. I don't think that I can convey to you how incredibly small she was. In this picture she looks fact compared to how little she actually is.

Shot of Regis and Kelly with Katherine Heigl, the guest of the day. She wasn't too exciting, kinda blah. Jordan Sparks was the musical guest and she was amazing. Her song Battlefield has been stuck in my head for like a week now.

Regis asking Julia (one of the interns), "Is that your final answer?"

Regis and Kelly filming some extra stuff after the show, with Gelman being all executive producery on the side. He was great, kinda makes me wish I was an executive producer...

After the show, we got to take a tour of the ABC studio and all of the interns took a picture behind the local news desk. Aww, such a nice picture!

Jacques Torres Ice Cream Sandwiches

So sometimes we get f0od at work and the other day we got ice cream sandwiches from Jacques Torres (he is know for his chocolate though he makes other delicious things too). Needless to say, as you can tell from the below picture, they were absolutely amazing. Now the other interns and I occasionally take little afternoon breaks at the Jacques Torres factory across the street for these sandwiches. I'm salivating just thinking about it...

My favorite video online right now...

Celeb Citing #3 and #4

3. When Brad and I were walking back from dinner the other night, we spotted Jimmy Kimmel and his wife across the street from us. It looked like Jimmy was looking at a map or something, while his wife kind of stared at us, since we were clearly staring at Jimmy. She gave us a "I know you're staring at my husband because he's famous, but lets all just play it cool" face.

4. This morning on my way to work I was walking through Washington Square Park and they were filming something by the fountain. It looked like a pretty low budget movie to me, especially after they filmed The Sorcerer's Apprentice (live action version of the Disney movie starring Nicholas Cage), Step Up 3 and Remember Me (Robert Pattinson's new movie) in the park earlier this summer, all of which where huge productions with lots of people yelling at you to walk around where they were filming to avoid being in the shot and to watch the giant wires on the ground. Anyways, as I was walking through the set (nobody yelling at me this time) I saw this guy walking towards me that looked familiar. It was Mark Feuerstein (you might recognize him if you google him - In Her Shoes, short lived show Good Morning Miami, other various things) walking directly towards me. So exciting! They were filming Royal Pains, his new show on USA that I've been watching because Verizon Wireless is a sponsor. Anyways, that was my excitement for the morning and a great way to start my day!

The Radys Came to VIsit!

So a couple of weekends ago, the Radys stopped by New York on their tour of colleges. I got to hang out with them on Saturday night in Times Square. First we had sushi at this place called Haru right off of Broadway. It was super delicious and I kind of keep dreaming about it, so clearly, I must return. Then we went to see Mamma Mia, which was really great. It was almost exactly like the movie (or probably more accurately, the movie was almost exactly like the show...) except that the actors sang about a bazillion times better than they did in the movie. I always want to go to Greece after watching it... And I always have ABBA stuck in my head for a solid week. Anyways, that about concluded our night since the Radys had been up since a really ridiculously early hour. Hopefully it was the first of many visits to come :)

Hiiiii...

Sorry I haven't posted anything in awhile. I'm probably going to do some massive posting in the next couple of days, if I can remember everything...

Free Pinkberry!

There was free pinkberry (froyo that tastes like frozen yogurt that people seem to either love or hate) this past Friday to introduce their new flavors: coconut and passion fruit.  Just thought I would share because I love a good free food deal.  I was contemplating going Pinkberry hopping with friends but then it started downpouring (surprise!), washing away all my hopes of a belly full of free froyo :( so I napped instead.

Kristin's here!

Kristin is in the city for a couple of weeks this summer, doing a theater program.  She arrived on Sunday and I went to pick her up at the airport (though it was kind of early so I was late, oops).  The really exciting part of this story is when we went to brunch.  I've been wanting to try this place, Cafeteria on 17th and 7th after a couple of my friends raved about their mac and cheese with truffle oil.  Kristin and I checked out the menu online, saw that they had green eggs and ham, as well as croissant french toast (or as Kristin likes to call it, double french toast), and we were sold.  Being fathers day and a busy brunch place, I decided it would be a good idea to make reservations.  Here is how that conversation went:

Sara: Happy Father's Day! This is Cafeteria.  

Me: Hi, I'd like to make a reservation for brunch

Sara: Oh, we don't take reservations.  But if you have the secret password...

Me: What's the secret password?

Sara: What do you want it to be?

Me: Well, we're pretty excited about the green eggs and ham, so how about that?

Sara: Green eggs and ham it is.  See you soon! I'm Sara.

Me: Thanks Sara, I'm Ali

So understandably Kristin and I were excited to go there after that convo.  When we arrived though, it was pretty empty and the person that seated us was a guy.  So we didn't get to use the password.  But, I did get the croissant french toast, which was pretty delicious and Kristin got a half order of pancakes AND scrambled eggs AND she ate it all! (which, if you know Kristin is pretty unbelievable since she is a firmly established nibbler. but I can vouch for her).  After we finished and left, I realized that I had left my umbrella there, so we went back to go get it (I've had that umbrella since I started NYU, which I think is some kind of record since umbrellas are frequently lost in this city.  and it has a squishy handle, which is awesome).  When we got there the guy that seated us and a girl were admiring the squishiness of it.  After claiming my umbrella, I asked the woman if she was Sara and she was like, No.  And then I had to explain that I had spoken to Sara and that we had set up a secret password and the guy was like, Green eggs and ham? And then the girl was like, Hey how come everyone knows about this but me? And then we left.  But it was a pretty memorable brunch.

After that, I took Kristin to Magnolia's for cupcakes, which has been 3 years in the making since I promised her some last time she was here for Thanksgiving during my freshman year, but after walking all the way there, we found out that it was closed because of the holiday.  

Then we both went back to our respective rooms and napped the day away.  

Oh and apparently Kristin met Matthew Broderick tonight, though I'm not sure how or where yet.  She hasn't replied to my text back...

Sunny Sunday

Note: the following occurred 2 weeks ago. I'm a little behind on the posting, but I'm catching up...

After literally spending all of last Saturday  in my bed (it was lovely), I decided to venture out on Sunday.  Aleja, Lindsay and I went to the Snapple Big Apple BBQ.  It was just like the Rib Cook-Off, but more expensive, busier, less available seating, and in Madison Square Park (not to be confused with Madison Square Garden, the arena...)

The craziness of the barbeque on a sunny day:

What I got.  Literally 6 people asked me where I got mine from while we were trying to find somewhere to sit:

Delicious! 

Aleja went for a pulled pork sandwich.  She picked the longest line, but I think the wait paid off:

Lindsay eats quickly and likes to take pictures of herself.  She got a pulled pork sandwich from another stand, but minus the barbeque sauce because she's a bizarre eater:

Finger-licking good.

Then we walked over to a street festival that was going on and bought some crepes to really round out our meal.  While we were sitting there eating them, we discovered that there is an apartment building called "The Future."  I kid you not. And it's so great because if you're a resident, you get to say things like, "Oh, yeah, I live in The Future." 

Then Lindsay and I decided to bake a cake.  But not just any cake.  We made what no man (possibly) has made before: a brake.  2 layers of cake and a middle layer of brownie.  The results were delicious and due to the color of the frosting and shape of the brake, we were inspired to turn it into an edible pirate's treasure chest.  

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society

I borrowed this book from Mom, who read it for her book club and it was probably one of the more enjoyable books that I've read recently.

Written by Mary Ann Shafer (I've never read anything else by her before...) it's an epistolary (thank you, English major) novel about a British female author in the aftermath of WWII who is trying to write another book after the success of her first one. She ends up by chance corresponding with a man who lives on Guernsey Island and gets wrapped up in the lives of those who live there.

It was funny and sad and touching and entertaining all at the same time. I read most of it on the plane ride back to New York and then finished up the last bit in the next two nights. I haven't read a book that fast in awhile...

This is my life:

7:45 - Alarm goes up

7:55 - I get up

8:30ish - I leave my dorm

9ish - 5ish - Internship

5:30ish - 11ish - Student Council Work*

12ish or 1ish - Bed

*Wednesdays and Thursdays are interrupted with a short break for So You Think You Can Dance

Rain, Rain, GO AWAY

It's been raining like nonstop.  Don't believe me? New York Times will back me up:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/20/nyregion/20rain.html?_r=1&scp=19&sq=rain&st=cse

Summary for those who aren't going to read it:

Rain has fallen for 15 of the first 19 days of June

True Blood

In a moment of pre-internship boredom, I decided to watch HBO's "True Blood."  Vin recommended it to me and I had heard a ton of people in Paris talking about it but I was desperately trying to avoid jumping on the vampire bandwagon.  Anyways, here's what I have to say about it:

BEST. SHOW. EVER. 

Seriously, if you haven't watched it, you should stop reading this entry right now and start watching True Blood.  It's about vampires going mainstream in today's society thanks to a synthetic blood drink that some Japanese people came up with.  The show is set in Louisiana with a waitress who can hear other people's thoughts, vampires, murders, and a ton of other surprises (supernatural or otherwise) that I wouldn't want to reveal. 

If anything, you should watch it for the opening title sequence itself, which is this crazy mix of religion, sex, violence, the South, and the supernatural.  It's unlike any other opener I've seen and will stick in your head. 

Also, the ad campaign that they've had to promote this show is ridiculous.  Season 1 started off with ads for Tru Blood (the synthetic blood drink) that were made to look like mock alcohol ads and they even put Tru Blood buttons on vending machines.  There is this really awesome blog that they set up - bloodcopy.com, that is supposed to be a human turned vampire blogging about vampires coming out in the open.  For season 2, they turned to sponsors like Marc Ecco, Gilette, and Harley Davidson to make mock ads for products geared specifically towards vampires, like vampire cologne and motorcycles that drive fast enough to beat the sun.  They did a couple of magazine inserts that were fake little newsletters with vampire-specific news, as well as events that were then photographed and published in magazines where human celebs hung out with other celebs who were actually vampires.  Also, living in New York, I am constantly seeing ads for True Blood everywhere, especially wildpostings (which are when you see like a row of the same poster advertising something.  It's done deliberately, even if it doesn't look like it...)  So they've done a pretty good job of surrounding me. (<---wow can you tell what industry I've been working in for the past couple of weeks?)

So yeah, as you can see, I'm kind of currently obsessed with this.  Thank goodness season 2 just premiered 2 weeks ago, cus I don't think I could have waited any longer.

Sunday, please come soon.

Freaks and Geeks

So Emily owns a rare copy of the first -- and only -- season of "Freaks and Geeks" which has made it's way round to pretty much everyone she knows.  I finally got my turn borrow it and it was pretty magnificent.  

"Freaks and Geeks" is a short-lived TV show made in 1999 by Judd Apatow (think Anchorman, 40-Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up, Superbad, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Pineapple Express, etc...) that revolves around the lives of high school teens in Michigan in 1980.  The main characters are Sam - who hangs out with geeks, and his older sister, Lindsay, who has recently deviated off of her track as a perfect student and is now hanging out with the freaks.  The show is chock full of really great actors who have gone on to become pretty famous, especially James Franco, Jason Segel, and Seth Rogen (all of whom have remained pretty faithful to Judd Apatow) and the episodes themselves are great because they cover all of the terrible high school awkwardness but in a way that makes it enjoy and uncomfortable and funny to watch, all at the same time.  Brilliant.

It's one of those shows that developed a cult following AND was critically acclaimed.  Why it was cancelled may forever remain a mystery.

Anyways, good luck getting your hands on the DVD of season 1, it's pretty hard to come by.  Your best bet is to borrow Emily's copy, but I'm not giving it back until I get a cannoli from Arthur Ave...

Kacey's Visit

Before we both start our summer programs and become super busy, Kacey came for a visit.  Here's a rundown of the exciting things that we did:

Wednesday:

• Kacey arrived
  
• We got Starbucks and hung out in the park (there are no Starbucks in CT, where Kacey lives, so usually she gets it like 30 times when she visits, but this was our only visit because it's so ridiculously expensive)
  
• I made a slightly bizarre, but okay dinner (in my kitchen! yay!)
  
• We went and got Rice to Riches, which is this amazing restaurant that only serves many variations of rice pudding (banana, tiramisu, coconut, pomegranate, rocky road, cinnamon raison, mango, chocolate chip, french toast, etc...)
  

• We watched So You Think You Can Dance.  Kacey loved it.  Mostly, she loved Mary's cackling...

Thursday:

• Made brunch.  Thank you, Target, for making Chocolate Raspberry pancake mix.
• We went to Texas.  Texas on Tour, that is.  Apparently, the Texas Tourism people thought that a really great way to boost their tourism would be to embark on a countrywide tour that gives everyone a free taste of Texas, complete with interactive 3-d video kayak tours, videos and trivia games, live musicians, hot sauce, Seaworld animals (which we unfortunately missed) and green screen pictures.  To see Kacey and I "hanging" around with a local Texan bull, click here.  
• We got dinner at Stand, a really great local burger place that serves delicious milkshakes (Toasted Marshmallows, anyone?) and makes their own mayo and ketchup
• Finished off the day with Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, a movie that I love, but that others seem to find as lacking a satisfying plot.

Friday:

• I had a brilliant idea: Brooklyn Botanical Garden!  Unfortunately we missed the full bloom season, but we still got to see a lot of cool stuff.... A japanese garden complete with koi fish and turtles in a pond shaped like the symbol for heart, Shakespeare garden, which features all of the flowers that he ever mentioned in writing, Fragrance Garden, where you get to smell the flowers, Cranford Rose Garden, Rock Garden (lame), Bonzai Museum, among other things. Below is the only picture I took of a black/purple flower.

• Met Carrie for dinner at Pomodoro, this pizza place that is known for their vodka sauce pizza.  It was amazing and I highly recommend it.
• Took a stroll through Little Italy, where there was some sort of festival going on, and Kacey and I had our first ever fried Oreos.
• Finished off the night (and Kacey's visit) with Slumdog Millionaire.  Well, she watched, while I napped...

Ikea!

Maya dragged me to Ikea to help her pick up some furniture for her new apartment.  We stopped by for an awesome Swedish meal of Swedish meatballs with gravy, lingonberry jam, mashed potatoes, and a Lingonberry and Elderflower juice boxes.  Verdict is: Elderflower is better than Lingonberry.  Delish.  

And then the straps on the Ikea bag made really terrible looking bloody bruise marks on my shoulder.  Awesome.

Bumble and Bumble Model Project Take 2

I went to go get my hair dyed (for the first time!) at Bumble and Bumble last week.  

Here is my before shot:

I don't have an after, but that's okay because it looks exactly the same as the before.  Once my hair was all dyed, washed, and dried, my stylist and I were both like, Um we don't see any difference... But then the head stylist came over and was like, Are you kidding me?! It looks so great.  So subtle, but really makes a difference.  

So then at the end you have to fill out an evaluation form and I rated my experience as a 4, saying that I couldn't tell a difference in my hair color (and neither could my stylist).  When I handed it in to the receptionist, she read it, then got on a phone that was hidden behind her desk and called someone.  The person in charge of the program came up to talk to me about my experience and asked me to send her an email in a couple of days, letting her know if I saw a difference after a couple of washes or something.  I think she was worried that I was upset or something, but hey, it's free - doesn't matter to me!  At least my stylist was really great at doing the whole head-massaging while she was washing my hair... 

Oh summer housing, how I've missed you...

So this entry is pretty much just me getting out my frustration at housing.  If you choose not to read my rambling frustration, I won't be offended.

My dorm, Water Street, closed forever at the end of the school year, so my roommate Allison and I decided to live together at another NYU dorm, Carlyle Court on Union Square, during the summer since we had both had terrible experiences with non-NYU roommates last summer and were hoping to avoid that again.  So we thought we would get put into a double studio apartment.  How wrong we were....

Friday: We move in.  And get put into a quad (2 people in a private room, 2 people in what used to be a living room but is now a bedroom).  I asked Olga the building manager to switch us to a double and she said no.  I went to our room and found out Allison and I were in the common room, even though no one else was there.  I went back to Olga and asked her to switch us to the private room, which she begrudgingly did.  Then, Allison met our suitemate who was apparently a little upset  that she was in a quad and in the common room.  So I went back to Olga again and asked her to switch us to a double.  She told me to come back on Wednesday

Sunday: This is what our kitchen looked like, thanks to our charming and considerate suitemate. All of this is her stuff and we couldn't even get in the kitchen to use it.  So I spent a lot of money eating out.  Boo.

Wednesday: We go and talk to Olga as she requested us to do.  She tells us to send her an email (which we had done before we even moved in when we were requesting to be roommates and she never responded).  So I sent one.  No response.

Thursday: Still no response.  Allison sends an email.

Friday: Still no response.  We visit Olga's office again only to find out that she is gone.  So we speak to her assistant who is very nice and understanding but can't do much other than call Olga.  She also tells us that they aren't really giving studio doubles out, except that they just moved our 4th (and nicer) suitemate into a double. 

Saturday: Still no email response.  Mom sends Olga an email too.  Oh, and did I mention that it's 80 degrees outside and our air conditioner hasn't been working since we moved in? Awesome, so glad that I'm paying extra for a dorm with air conditioning.  

Sunday or Monday (can't remember): We find out from Olga's assistant that our request was for a double, and we are in a double within a quad, so our request has been fulfilled.  I go to summer housing and complain about Olga, only to be told to call someone on Tuesday and speak to him then.  

Tuesday: Allison and I visit Olga again and this time she is there.  After pretending to not know who we are (not possible, we have been bothering her too much), she suddenly remembers that the reason we wanted to switch was because of our suitemate, who has since moved to a single. We tell her that that is just one of many reasons why we want to move out.  She promises to look later that day and see if she can find us a double, though apparently it doesn't look too good because there are a lot of rooms closed due to renovation.  Allison's mom calls summer housing 3 times, bothering them and telling them to make sure that Olga changes our room.  In the late afternoon, Allison and I get an email from her saying that we've been switched into a double and to please move in by Thursday at the latest.  We move that night.  Victory is ours!  

I will miss these views though...

Sorry, that was long and rambling and probably unnecessary...

YayYayYayYay!

Washington Square Park was reopened last week after a year of being under construction.  The fountain was working, children were playing, dogs were running, it was wonderful.  And let me tell you, it was so much more enjoyable knowing that the fountain was perfectly lined up with the arch...  

I think phase 2 involves closing the east side of the park, which should happen fairly soon.  Hopefully it will all be finished in time for my graduation next spring, when they somehow manage to squeeze all of the grads and their families into the park.  Not quite sure how though...

Thanks for pasta, Dad!

Emack and Bolio's featured in Time Out New York

The ice cream store that I work at was featured as a stop on "The All-Ages Walk" article in Time Out New York (a popular weekly city-specific magazine) this week.  Of course, in her normal fashion, my boss got mad at pretty much everyone that works for her because of their interaction with the TONY staff (be it because we didn't get their card or because she wasn't there when they took pictures, which was somehow our fault or... the list goes on and on.....).  Anyways, in the end it all worked out and there's even a picture of Robin, my boss, handing Jenn, my coworker (who is posing as a customer) a scoop of ice cream.  Note: my boss does not usually smile that much, especially not at Jenn.

Here's the link:

http://newyork.timeout.com/articles/i-new-york/74624/you-asked-for-it-the-all-ages-walk

(ps. our picture is the last one)

Free Coldplay Dowload

For those of you who like the band, Coldplay is giving away a free download of a bunch of their songs performed live at a concert.  Here's the link:

http://www.coldplay.com/lrlrl/lr.html

Yoga to the People

You might be noticing a trend: I'm trying to take advantage of the free things that the city has to offer (don't worry, posts on all of the free outdoor movies that they offer in the summer to come).  My latest venture was to my first official yoga class at a studio on St. Marks called Yoga to the People.  It's free (well, actually, donation based) and they have a couple of locations in New York, as well as in California.  Anyways, it was so hard and I don't actually think that I've ever sweated that much in my life.  My eyes hurt because they were so salty at the end of it and my arms hurt from reaching for the ceiling so many times.  Despite the excruciating pain that I endured, it was really cool because it was a mixed class: mixed ages, mixed yoga levels, mixed athletic abilities - yoga for everyone.  So that was really nice, because it didn't matter if I wasn't doing the poses correctly or if I need to take a little break and just sit on my mat for a little.  

And while I don't foresee myself becoming a yoga fanatic like some people, I do hope to go again, get a little better.  We'll see what happens. 

Celeb Citing #2

Don't know if you can really make it out, but that person in the black with the blonde hair behind the coffee cup is Sarah Michelle Geller.  Yup, Buffy the Vampire Slayer herself, a 90's tv icon, came into the ice cream store the other day.  And for those of you who don't keep up with your daily Perez Hilton, she and her husband, Freddy Prince Jr.  (another 90s teen heartthrob), are about to have their first baby.  She was talking about him when she was leaving.  It was exciting.

Also, in related news, Jason Bateman has come in two more times, though I was unfortunately not there for either of them.  Maybe next time....

Bumble and Bumble Model Project

As you might have been able to guess, haircuts in New York can be pretty expensive.  So what's a poor college student like myself to do? Bumble and Bumble, a hair salon and hair product line, has what they call "Bumble and Bumble University" in the Meatpacking district where stylists who have been with Bumble and Bumble for at least 2 years (they may have been cutting hair at salons before that for many years) come for a 3 day refresher course, where they cut and dye hair.  

I got to be a hair model for them, which basically means that I get a really expensive haircut for free.  It was really easy, I just showed up for their hair model casting call, they checked out my hair, and scheduled me for an appointment.  I was nervous that I would really have no say in how my hair was cut, but they were super great and really were conscious of what I wanted, how short I wanted it, what kind of bangs I wanted, and that my hair was curly.  It was an awesome experience and I will totally be going back. In fact, next week I'm getting my hair dyed (for the first time. eek!) for free there too. 

View of the receptionist's desk:

Waiting area with the salon behind it:

I forgot to take a picture of my hair or of my stylist who was this really great woman from California.  Anyways, I totally recommend it for those of you who are in New York.  They have a bunch of different hair styles that you can choose from.  My was the Razor Bob, which is just hair that's cut above the shoulder with a razor, which is apparently their signature style.  Pictures to come of my cut and color after I get it dyed. Blue.  Just kidding!

Student Council!

So, been wondering who it is that I spend pretty much all of my time with? Well this is (most of) them!

From left to right: Justin, Kristen, Vin, Sharlini, Tyler, Megan, Me, Archit, Pat, Simon, Diandra, Cristina, Dariel, Mason, Noveen, Celia, Dipesh, and Edgar squatting in front.  

Summer's only been here about 2 weeks and I miss them already!

Financial District Fun

Took a second final-study break with Noveen, but this time we just hung out around our dorm.  First we went to the elevated acre, which is this really nice garden and grass area overlooking the FDR that's tucked in among a bunch of skyscrapers.  I image that tons of people come here for lunch during the week, but since we went on a Sunday afternoon, it was pretty empty.

View of the river, overlooking the FDR

After that, we decided to take a ride on the Staten Island Ferry, which is totally free and super nice.  It was crowded with tons of tourists and Staten Islanders, but we still got to feel the sea breeze in our hair after elbowing our way through to the balcony.  

You also get to go right past the Statue of Liberty, which is cool.  And there's great views of Manhattan and the Brooklyn  Bridge.  

After the ride over, you have to get off and get back onto the ferry to get back to Manhattan.  I remember Dad, always full of wisdom, telling me when we took the trip: And that's about as much time as you want to spend in Staten Island...  

Then Noveen made me go to Chipotle and then eat coconut popsicles...  One successful day, check!