I'm Back

Hi everyone!  Sorry it has been so long since I last posted...With one 6 page paper and two midterms in the past week, I have not been able to post!  So this one is probably going to be extra long!  I hope you're ready.

So last Thursday was actually a pretty nice day.  I went to class and came out to find the NYU health street fair.

 

  My favorite kind of giveaways!  I got some oatmeal and granola samples, a backpack, t-shirt, chocolate and lotion samples.  I did well.

   After a quick snack, I went on a run. My roommate had been telling me about a great area by the water that was perfect for running so I decided to check it out.  Even though it was a gray day, the views were pretty nice and it made the run more interesting.  However, I definitely noticed that I am not in running shape.  I'll be working on that because I hope to be doing a half marathon in March!  So here are some pics from my run.

Can you see the Statue of Liberty out there?

After a yummy lunch...

   my day got a lot better because I found this little surprise in the mail

 which contained all of these fun Halloween decorations:

Thanks Mom!  After all the Halloween excitement I headed over to PS 140 to spend some time with the 1st and 4th graders.  

   We did some HW, read some books and had a great time.  I thought this sign was a nice thought.  After my afternoon of volunteering I went to meet my friend, Eva, who I met while studying abroad this summer.  We ended up spending Friday being tourists all around downtown Manhattan.

   After an obligatory latte, we headed to the Brooklyn Bridge.

   It was VERY cold and windy.  But we braved the weather and walked from there to Ground Zero, then along the water, where I ran the day before.  We looked at the Irish Hunger Memorial.

We saw this cool artwork along the water.  I really liked the quotes.  One said, "one need never the leave the confines of New York to get all the greenery one wishes."  Which upon further research is a quote from Frank O'Hara.

 Another was a quote from Walt Whitman which said "meddlesome, mad, extravagant city."  I thought it was a nice description.

 From there we went on to Wall Street, shoving through the crowds of buses and buses full of tourists.

We grabbed lunch at a cool restaurant called The Pump.  I got a really yummy bowl of brown rice, spinach, sweet potatoes, chicken and cheese.

 We ended the afternoon with a little tour around campus and Washington Square Park.

   Some window shopping....I love this store!

 And...forty carrots!  My friend introduced me to a new flavor combination of plain yogurt with melba sauce.  AMAZING. 

  After a long day of walking and sightseeing we headed back to the dorm for the rest of the night.  Saturday started off with the 5k race I signed up for a few weeks ago.  The race was in Central Park so we headed up on the subway.  It was chilly but a nice crisp, fall morning.  It was a nice crowd, but not too big.  I had a lot of fun racing and it really inspired me to find new races to sign up for!  Overall, a great first race in NYC.

 After it was over, we stopped at Starbucks, of course, and headed home.

After a shower, some food, and a quick rest.  We went back out on the town to try and get student rush tickets at the Broadway show, "In the Heights," which Eva really wanted to see.

   While waiting for the tickets outside the theater, which happened to be right across the street from the NYC Scientology center, I had to fend off a very creepy man trying to recruit me to Scientology.  I finally got rid of him by turning around after he told me that he was just trying to "help me" and that "I knew nothing and therefore couldn't say I wasn't interested".  He should work on his technique...

   My friend Caroline, who was seeing the show with us, had the brilliant idea of getting dinner before the show started, at this restaurant.

 The Shake Shack is known for, well, it's shakes, but also it's hamburgers and fries.  So that's what I got.  It was very very good.

 Then we saw the show. Which was just OK.  But Eva loved it.

After the show, we went to a party with some of my roommates and friends but came home pretty early due to exhaustion from the past day's busy schedule.
Ok on to the rest of the week...

I spent Sunday writing a paper at Starbucks (thanks for the help, Mom!).  It was not a very fun day.
Monday was spent picking out an outfit to lift the Monday blues.

 Going to the library to print my paper and work on some homework.

 And eating some hot bar from Whole Foods.  Perfection.

Tuesday was another cute outfit (well at least I thought it was cute).

 Then class. More class.  Spin class.  And some salad at Chipotle with friends. 

Hello, guacamole.

Ok, the rest of the week gets pretty repetitive.  So I will just give you a picture recap.

Last cute outfit before the sweats took over for the rest of the week.

Trying to cure my midterm blues.

Had about 20 of these.

 After my Friday midterm (yuck), the weekend began!  I found a new restaurant with really good healthy food.

 Explored the city a little bit.  Isn't this building cool?

And I spent the rest of my day going to the gym, getting my nails done, and going out to dinner with my friends family.  We went to a restaurant called The Smith, which was really good.  I love finding new restaurants to go to.

Ok, we're almost through the week, I promise.  Thanks for hanging in there with me.  It was a long week for me too.  So yesterday, I slept in, had some yummy pumpkin oats and cleaned my room.  Then I headed out to the Union Square farmers market.  It felt very fall with lots of apples and pumpkins.

They had really great apple cider. 

After the market I wanted to grocery shop.  I couldn't decide between...

 or

 I ended up going with Trader Joe's.  They both have horrendously long lines.  Like lines that wrap all around the store.  In order to get your food you have to battle aggressive shoppers with their carts that attempt to ram you out of the way but I think the food was worth it!  I struggled back to the dorm with my bags of groceries and spent the rest of the afternoon working out, cleaning, making dinner and chatting with Baubie and Zadie (love you and miss you both!).  The last item on the agenda was....PUMPKIN PINKBERRY.  I was SO excited.

It was so so so so good.  I might go back today.  This blog makes me realize I probably eat too much frozen yogurt...but now that I think about it I'm not sure there is such a thing.  Well, sorry again for the long break in blogging and this extremely long (and kind of boring post).  I'll check back in a few days!  I promise.

Oh and Thanksgiving break is in less than a month!  Can't wait to see everyone!

<3 from NYC