Whirlwind

Hello hello!  Another week has gone by and I can't believe it.  Here's the update on everything that went down.  Last Sunday after a day of relaxing and running a few errands, I convinced two of my roommates to come along with me to the famous Katz's Deli!  I had been dreaming of some delicious matzah ball soup and big sandwiches they serve up at Jewish delis so I was very excited.  Katz's is only about a 15 minute walk from our dorm, so it was perfect.

   The deli was busy and we had the option of sitting down and being waited on or ordering at the counter.  We chose to sit down and it only took me about 2 minutes to decide what I wanted.

   

But first, they sent out a plate of cucumbers, pickles, and tomatoes.  

  Then came the matzah ball soup!  It was so good, but definitely not as good as my Baubie's, which I can not wait to have when I go home in a few weeks!

    After that came my 1/2 of a pastrami sandwich.  This was also incredibly delicious.  I love deli's.  Can't wait to go back.  It was a very New Yorky food experience.
   The next day after class, I decided to go for a run.  I've been wanting to visit the High Line for a few weeks now and I thought it was the perfect opportunity.  The High Line is a park that is made on old train tracks, so it runs above part of the city.  I ran from my dorm to the entrance, then up the stairs and on to the High Line.

  
    It was very beautiful with the flowers and leaves changing colors.

    I left just as the sun was starting to go down, which made for a beautiful sunset.  Then on the way back, running through Chelsea and the Meatpacking District, I found some fabulous shops.  I stopped to take photos of these ones, including the Louboutin store!  I always like to remember the good stores I pass by for when Mom comes to visit!

Shoes! 

This was the cutest little street I ran by.  Mom and Dad: Apartment for next year?

 Wednesday was started by the discovery that I did not do so well on my Spanish test...it wasn't a big surprise, but still it was not a good feeling.  I have come to the conclusion that I do not have a language brain. So after some stress with that whole situation, and a few more classes, I headed to the gym.   I was supposed to start my new workout/weight lifting plan, so I headed out of my gym comfort zone of the cardio room...to this place:

  The weight room is kind of a scary place with all the huge guys grunting and throwing weights around.  I tried to follow my new plan and it was HARD.  I have been very sore the past few days but it feels good to work hard hopefully I will start seeing results in a few weeks.

  On Thursday, I went to class and went to PS 140 for some volunteering.

Isn't this a cool mural?

   To be honest, it's not my favorite thing to do.  The program is very unorganized and the teachers are not very professional and allow the kids to go crazy most of the time.  But just when I really wanted to leave, one of the first graders came up to me and said, "Hey, you helped me with my homework last week.  Thank you!" and then he hugged me.  It was so cute and really made me feel good about what I have been doing.  

   Once the kids left, I went to meet up with my friend who is visiting from out of town.  I had been wanting to go to the Chelsea Market for awhile so I thought it would be the perfect place to grab dinner. Chelsea Market is a big building with tons of bakeries, restaurants, fruit markets, shops, and more.  I walked around for a while, drooling over most of the food, until I finally settled on some bruschetta and stuffed zucchini from a little Italian market.

Aren't these cookies adorable?

The Market had great Halloween decorations all throughout.

The bruschetta was scrumptious.

   Friday I had no class so I spent the day running around.  I went to the bookstore, the camera repair shop, Whole Foods for some hot bar, and then I went to the gym and spin class.  On the way back from spin, I saw the Empire State Building lit up green.  No idea why it was green, but I thought it looked pretty neat.

    After class I ate dinner at a restaurant called Soho Park, in (you guessed it) Soho with my friend.  I had a yummy veggie burger, so it get's added to the list of good restaurants to go back to.

 After dinner I met another friend at one of my favorite spots in the city for some pumpkin goodness.
Delightful.  I can't get enough.

   Once Friday night hit, I realized that I would be leaving the next day for DC to attend the Rally to Restore Sanity/Keep Fear Alive with Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert.  We had arranged to take free buses from Citi Field, where the Mets play, in Queens to Washington.  The buses were supposed to leave at 6 AM so we were planning on meeting up at 4 AM (!!) to take the subway to Queens.

   It was one LONG day.  We already started to see crowds forming while waiting for the subway that goes out to Queens.  I have never been on a more crowded subway train.  We endured 13 stops all the way out to Flushing, packed in so tight that I did not need to hold on to anything because there was no room to fall.  Let's just say, I got to know those around me pretty well.  We arrived and starting lining up outside Citi Field to get onto the buses.

  It was cold.  And waiting in a line with over 10,000 people to get onto the over 200 buses that were waiting was an extremely long process.  Basically due to lack of organization, the 6 AM departure time, turned into an 8 AM departure time.  With the rally beginning at noon, it was not looking very good.  The bus ride was long, with traffic and a slow driver, and it was made worse by my anxiety over not getting there in time.  I had been hoping to arrive in DC early enough to get a good spot to see the festivities, but I soon realized that was not going to happen.  The most painful part was listening to the rally on the radio while stuck in traffic.  I was so sad when Cat Stevens, Ozzy Osbourne, Colbert, and Stewart all came on and I realized I could have been there seeing it.  But I tried to stay positive and we eventually arrived at 2:00, only an hour before the rally was slated to end.

   We hightailed it to the metro, which is really cool.  I like the stations a lot better than the ones in NYC (sorry, New York).  After a quick metro ride we got to the rally.  There were a lot of people.  About 250,000 according to CBS (take that Glenn Beck!).  So needless to say, we didn't get to see very well.  But we eventually found a spot where we could tell what was going on.  Although we only saw about 45 minutes of the rally, we did get to hear Colbert and Stewart speak, hear Tony Bennett sing, and at the end we saw Ozzy Osbourne, Cat Stevens, John Legend, and Sheryl Crow all perform together.  We didn't get to see much but it was still well worth it.

I loved this sign.  There were some great ones at the rally.

All of the group, happy we had finally made it.

Caroline and I at the Washington Monument

    As you can see, after the rally we walked around the national mall for awhile.  I really love the feeling of DC, especially the mall area.  It was also a perfect fall day.  I really wished I could have been there longer and explored more.  A weekend trip back to DC is already in the works for next term.  So after we walked around we had to make it back to RFK Memorial Stadium to get back on the buses.  I was not excited for another 5 hour bus ride.  The bus ride was the bumpiest ride I'd ever experienced but at least we arrived in one piece.  I was exhausted and the subway ride back to Manhattan was the longest 15 stops of my life.  Eventually we made it back, scarfed down some dinner, and I slept for a solid 10 hours.  It was a crazy day (slightly ironic for a day that was supposed to be about restoring sanity) but overall it was a great experience to get to see the rally in person.
   Today was not nearly as exciting.  I slept, cleaned, did laundry, and cooked (or at least attempted to).  Since it is Halloween we wanted to venture to the the famous NYC West Village Halloween Parade.  It is basically a big parade full of anyone who wants to dress up and walk in it.  I threw together a hippie costume and braved the cold, so I could see it for myself.

   I didn't get very good pictures of the parade.  But it was basically a lot of crazy costumes, some crazy floats, and just a lot of crazy people.  By this point in the weekend, I was a little sick of crowds and didn't feel up to staying for too long.  So after watching for awhile, I headed off with Caroline for some food and froyo (I'll eat froyo no matter how cold it is apparently), then back to the dorm for some much needed warmth and rest.  Can't believe the weekend is over already.  It was quite a whirlwind.  I'm hoping for a good week and I'm counting down the days (22!) until I am home for Thanksgiving.  Thanks for reading everyone!

Lots of <3 from NYC