brooklyn

This morning after picking up my tickets for next week's commencement ceremonies, I took the subway down to South Street Seaport to meet Lauren for our planned trek across the Brooklyn Bridge.

As we searched for the entrance to the bridge, we were approached by a man who said, "Excuse me, ladies. Could you walk on the other side of the street? We shooting a film here." Sure enough, they were. And, sure enough, it was Matt Damon with fake blood in a fake car crash for The Bourne Ultimatum, to be released August 3, 2007. (That's him in all black, next to the director's chair.) We found the entrance to the pedestrian walk, above the cars, over the Brooklyn Bridge and we joined what must have been hundreds of pedestrians and cyclists in crossing over, stopping along the way for multiple pictures. It was actually a gorgeous day for this sort of touristy outing; the sun was shining and there was just a slight breeze.Once in Brooklyn, we headed to the famed Grimaldi's for a New York style pizza lunch. Patsy Grimaldi, the founder of Grimaldi's, learned to make pizza at his uncle Patsy Lancieri's pizzeria in 1941 at age ten. Grimaldi believed coal-fired brick ovens produced the best pizza, and it was illegal to build new coal ovens in Manhattan, so the pizzeria ended up opening in the 1990's on Old Fulton Street under the Brooklyn Bridge. Grimaldi’s is small and very popular with tourists and locals alike; before being seated we waited for about half an hour in a line that stretched down the street. Unlike most pizzerias in New York, Grimaldi’s sells only whole pies (a sign that reads “No Slices” and "Take Out, Same Line" is displayed in the front window), so we ordered a small with pepperoni on one half and garlic on the other. Rated as the best in the city by Zagats six consecutive years running, Grimaldi’s is known for going light on the sauce and heavy on the fresh ingredients –- including mozzarella slices made on the premises. Our crust was perfectly crunchy and chewy, with a hint of smokiness from the oven. The fresh tomato sauce was tangy, the mozzarella was slightly salty, the pepperoni was spicy, and the garlic was sweet and crunchy. We left with full bellies and smiles!

(See Lauren in the line? We still weren't at the front...)

We took a short walk down to the river to look over the water toward Manhattan, take more pictures, and relish the pizza goodness. We had planned to try the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory - another famous New York eatery - for dessert, but we were just too full and instead we headed for the subway and home. It was another great New York Day!

(Looking back at Manhattan.)

sand in my shoes

Sand in my shoes, and rum in my tummy!

Today Jenn and I took a day trip to Atlantic City. We headed out at 6:45 this morning, took the subway to Port Authority, and then took a bus to New Jersey. The bus left at 7:30, and we almost missed it! God sent us an express train, and we booked it through the bus station - causing one man to whistle after us and say "Woo! Heels on wheels! Look at 'em go!" - bought our tickets, and made it to the line for the bus with about two minutes to spare.

After a leisurely two-hour bus ride, including naps and reading, we arrived in AC to an overcast sky and a chill in the air. Nevertheless, we were ready for some outlet shopping! We spent a couple of hours shopping, and we each came away with a couple of things, and the sun started to peak out. Then we headed to Cesar's Palace for "The Buffet," as the signs said. Mmmm... shrimp! And pepperoni bread, seafood salad, marinated mushrooms, lasagna, egg rolls, chocolate lava cake and ice cream... We stuffed ourselves and got our money's worth!

Next, we headed to the casino and the slot machines. Jenn chose penny slots for us, and she played and lost $5 quickly. Then it was my turn. And I won! I put in $5, and came out with $14.75. I guess it's good she convinced me to play! We collected my winnings and then went to the boardwalk.

We walked in the sunshine for quite awhile, put our toes in the freezing Atlantic water, and stopped in a couple of tourist trap shops.

Before we headed home, we found a bar where the bar tender told us "I'm your cocktail menu," and proceeded to make us quite the Rum Runner concoctions. We sat on white Adirondack chairs, with our feet in the sand, on the third floor of the mall overlooking the ocean and enjoyed our drinks before the bus ride home to New York.

What a fantastic day!

cafeteria

Today's not so exciting (aerobics, Target, shower, group meeting for a class project...) so I'll tell you about Saturday night instead.

Carol, Jen, Alison, Victoria, and I went to Cafeteria for dinner. Cafeteria has been around since the late 90's, and they have a location here in Chelsea and one in Miami. In an episode of Sex and the City, the girls visit cafeteria for brunch. Apparently it's a popular celebrity hang-out, though we didn't see anyone famous. Cafeteria's concept is home-style comfort food in a modern, stylish setting. I think they get a check-plus-plus in both areas! The decor was brown, baby blue, and white in leather, plastic, metal, and fabric. Jen and I sat on white foot stools that looked like big eggs. Quite fun and comfortable! And the food. Oh the food. Jen and I shared an appetizer of lightly breaded cornmeal calamari with roasted tomato sauce. Then we had the macaroni and cheese with cheddar and fontina. Mmm-mmm, good! A little bit of heaven baked and served in a casserole dish! Carol tried the grilled chicken, and Alison and Victoria had hamburgers and fries. After dinner we moved from our white leather banquet to a little table with the big white eggs, where I sipped coffee (trying to get warm - our only complaint was that the air conditioning was on) and where three of the girls shared a chocolate cake dessert. Others have posted online that they had difficulty getting a table, but it seems we had the appropriate image, and we were able to get in right away. The waiters were all very good looking, but definitely not interested in any of us - if you know what I mean.

After we finished at Cafeteria, we headed over to Union Square to find a lounge where Carol was supposed to meet up with some French guys she knows because of teaching English at Berlitz. The decor was cute, and you can't go wrong with a glass of wine. But the music was atrociously loud so we couldn't talk at all, and the couches were so deep that our knees ended up next to our chins. That makes it hard to sit like a lady! We ended up leaving fairly early, and we took a cab back home. In spite of our disappointment with the lounge, it was a fun night out on the town! Gotta take advantage of all New York has to offer before I leave here in eight weeks!

apple tree

In addition to being fairly productive with school work, I've had a bit 'o fun this weekend, too. For lunch on Saturday, I went with Alison and her family to a narrow, barely there restaurant in Chinatown for authentic dumplings at dirt-cheap prices (at least by US standards - 5 for $1). After ordering an assortment of boiled and fried pork dumplings, bready pancakes with chives, and warm soy milk, we wedged ourselves into a corner at the back on and amongst the six bar stools, the locals, and the production line. So yummy; I can hardly wait to go back. From there we visited a Chinese bakery for traditional egg custards. Alsion and I split a strawberry one, and her mom tried a melon one. Aside from being unnaturally lime green and hot pink in color, they were pretty good. Together we wandered through Chinatown, and then I trekked on to Soho for some shopping. After browsing through some little boutiques, I ended up in H&M where I bought a shirt dress and soft pink sweater that was on clearance for $9.90. A stop at K-Mart (for tissues to combat runny noses because of the cold) and another at Dunkin' Donuts (for hot chocolate also to combat the cold), I made my way back home to do reading, work on papers, and attempt an early bedtime.

Saturday morning I met Alison and Jenn at 7:30. That's right - 7:30 AM. Hence the early bedtime the night before. We headed down to Studio 54 in hopes of getting $26 Rush tickets to The Apple Tree, starring Kristin Chenoweth. Luckily, we not only beat the rush, we were the only ones there. We got to stand, shivering, in line with ourselves for the next two hours! We did make a quick run to Bagel and Bean around the corner to grab breakfast, and after about an hour and forty-five minutes the security guard let us in to stand in the lobby.

The saga continued later that night when we met at 7:15 for the 8:00 show, only to discover that the subway had inexplicably stopped working. We run-walk-run-walked all the way to 94th from 120th before we managed to get away from the crowd and catch a cab. (So much for looking good.) We only missed the first number. And from then on, the night was great. What a wonderful, hilarious, creative show! Check it out here - http://www.roundabouttheatre.org/ Afterwards, we decided we deserved a margarita for our harriedness, so we went to Chevy's just down the street. Mmm-mmm good. (And by the way, Jenn and I didn't plan to match!)

And today has been a day of aerobics, errands, cleaning, e-mailing, reading, and doing more school work. That's it in a nutshell!

valentines

I hope cupid had a coat to wear today! He certainly needed it for visiting New York! We had our first true winter storm, starting last night and continuing throughout the day today. We had snow, sleet, ice, and more snow. The official measure was two inches in Central Park, but it certainly felt deeper than that as I slogged around town, trudging through the massive piles on street corners. Oooh, and the wind was blowing, too. The ice pellets felt pretty sharp in my face, and at one point I was literally blown down the street! But I had to go out in it. I had to visit the elementary school to work on my research project (due March 14!!! Ahhh!!!), and I had to go to a bakery to pick up cupcakes for our Valentine's shin-dig.

A few of us gathered to order dinner from a Chinese delivery place and to watch American Idol. And then I met with a few others in Jenn's room for chocolate-covered fortune cookies, cupcakes, candies, truffles, cheese and crackers, and pink drinks. We had a great time chatting and reminiscing about middle school. Not a bad Valentines Day, especially when you throw in the fact that my professor cancelled my science class tonight because of the weather! Yay!

Oh yeah. AND MY SISTER IS COMING TO VISIT TOMORROW! YAY!

like monday

(At left: PHO)
I wish more days could be like Monday was.

8:30 am - Noon -- I was at a public elementary school doing research for my Master's Project, feeling very productive and praying that I'll finish by March 14.
12:00 pm - 2:30 -- I ran a few errands around Manhattan, and got in some exercising by walking rather than taking the subway. Found a cute new skirt at H&M. I love that place!
3:00 - 4:00 -- Did a bit of online research for my project and read for my Tuesday night class.
4:00 - 5:15 -- I met with my advisor about my project and read a sample project in her office.
5:30 - 6:45 -- Took the subway to 72nd street and met Sarah, from church, for coffee. Well, really I had a coke and she had dinner. Then I got back on the subway to go uptown.
7:00 - 8:45 -- Dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant, Saigon Grill at 90th & Amsterdam Ave., with Jen and Carol. It was Jen's first Vietnamese food experience. Mmmm... So good! We shared two types of spring rolls, and I had a steaming bowl of Pho.
9:00 -- I had to be back in my room for an important phone call. After the call I did more class work.

In addition to meeting one friend for coffee and two others for dinner, another friend also called and offered me one of his extra tickets for an opera that night! Geesh. Too bad my friends can't spread it around a bit so I have something fun to do every night!

frrrrrozen hot chocolate

Last night I met Tanya and Cody for dinner and the famous Frrrrozen Hot Chocolate at Serendipity3. Did you ever see the movie Serendipity? Yep, this restaurant and the drink are both in the movie. It's so popular that there is often a four hour wait to get in, and sometimes there's a one hour wait just to put your name on the list! The restaurant began as a basement coffee shop, and now it's housed in a brownstone. Check out the website for the history of the place at www.serendipity3.com Our opinion? It's an awful lot of hype about not too much! In order to make reservations ahead of time we had to commit to eating dinner there, and the food turned out to be less than impressive. We all three had overdone hamburgers. But the Frrrozen Hot Chocolate was scrumdidilyumpscious. And the company was even better. We caught up after not seeing each other for about a month, and there's was lots of laughing. Tanya returns to Ireland this Friday, so last night was probably our last shindig together. I'm definitely going to miss her!

celebrate

I'm celebrating... friends, birthdays, desserts, decorations, shows, shopping, Christmas, the birth of my Savior!

Last night, I joined a group of girls from school in celebrating Jenn's birthday. Jenn chose Cafe Lalo as our dessert destination, because she was craving some chocolate cake. The Cafe is also the site of one of the scenes from the movie You've Got Mail. The dessert menu is huge! We each chose something different so we could taste a big selection. Carol, Jenn, and I also splurged on champagne! As we were finishing, the waitress brought Jenn a little cookie with a candle in it, and they played "Happy, happy birthday, baby!" On our way back to school, we walked through the main Columbia campus to see the Christmas lights. What a wonderful night!L to R: Jenny, Jenny's friend from CA, Alison, Me, Carol, Jenn

This morning, Drew, Alison, and I went to see the Rockettes Christmas Spectacular. And spectacular it was! My favorite part of the show was when the Rockettes did their thing, but there was a lot more to the show than that! There was a movie of Santa flying over and landing in New York... a 3D movie, no less! At one point, a section of the stage rose up from below the main stage, and it held a full symphony orchestra! Then the platform they were on moved around on the main stage. At another time, an ice skating rink rose up, and a couple did some ice dancing. There was singing, lighting effects, live animals (a horse & carriage for the NY scene and sheep and camels for the nativity scene), moving sets, little people who played Santa's elves, dancers in teddy bear costumes, and so much more. And the Radio City Music Hall itself was nothing short of spectacular! It was far bigger than I imagined, and it was quite full considering we were there at 10:00 am on a school day! After the show, we went for a warm lunch (because it was soooo coooold outside today), and then I did some Christmas shopping. I also stopped by Bloomingdales to see their Christmas window displays. I'm definitely feeling the Christmas spirit, and I'm looking forward to heading home for the holiday! L to R: Me, Drew, Alison

snow, cheesecake, and the grinch

It snowed on Monday morning!


Just a tiny little bit around 10:30 this morning, but the 3rd graders freaked out! And I'll admit I was excited, too!

On Friday night, I went with Cody and one of her college friends to Junior's, a restaurant which supposedly has the best cheesecake in New York. The original restaurant is in Brooklyn, but we went to the one in Times Square. We had to wait about 45 minutes for a table, but even the dinner was worth it. I had meatloaf and mashed potatoes. Cody ate part of her sandwich, and then she helped me with the meatloaf. After dinner, we ordered two slices of cheesecake to share, and we couldn't even eat half of them! They turned out not to be very much like cheesecake, but were good nonetheless. The strawberry shortcake cheesecake had a layer of white cake, a layer of strawberry sauce, a layer of strawberry cheesecake, another layer of sauce, another layer of cake, and a layer of frosting. The devil's food cake cheese cake was like a layer of chocolate fudge, a layer of cheesecake, and another layer of fudge, all topped with frosting and shavings of chocolate. Really, two bites of that was enough. Good, but rich. We decided they should have let us seen pictures before we ordered. Then we would have only gotten one piece.

After dinner, I met Seana, Alison, Agnes, and Drew at a theater on 42nd to see The Grinch on Broadway. What fun! The costumes and sets were adorable, and the songs were upbeat. There were lots of kids in the audience, and it was fun to hear their reactions to that nasty grinch! We were all surprised when it started "snowing" in the theater and again when red and white confetti shot out of the walls over our heads at the end of the show! It wasn't the most spectacular Broadway singing and dancing of seen, but it was definitely a fun Christmasey experience, and one I could see myself repeating as an annual Christmas tradition!

L to R: Seana, Drew, Me, Agnes, Alison

sinful

Last weekend was positively sinful! After the chocolate show on Friday night, I also agreed to go out to dinner with some girls from school - Carol, Victoria, Jenn, Jenny, and Alison. Carol chose the restaurant, and, lo and behold, it was a chocolate restaurant! Sure they serve a few sandwiches and salads, but the main part of their menu is chocolate! The restaurant is called Max Brenner, which is the name of a chocolatier from Australia. We all ate dessert for dinner! I ordered a waffle that came with whipped cream, a scoop of divine white chocolate ice cream, a scoop of rich dark chocolate ice cream, chocolate sauce in a little beaker, and crunchy little chocolate covered waffle balls. It was delicious, but I certainly couldn't finish it all. A couple of the girls had crepes, and three of them had different chocolate cakes with ice cream. Alison also ordered hot chocolate that came in a mug designed specifically for drinking hot chocolate and holding the mug with both hands. Everything was amazing! I think I probably shouldn't be eating for the rest of the week! So worth it though. Anybody feel like coming to visit New York yet?

chocolate

Tonight I went to the 9th Annual New York Chocolate Show. The show is also held in Tokyo, Moscow, Paris, and Beijing, and it is billed as, "...the ultimate festival of world class exhibitors, chef demonstrations, chocolate fashion and showpieces, tantalizing gifts, and more!"
At first it's only open to those in the industry, but then they open it to the public. Last night tickets cost $200 and included a viewing of a couture fashion show - with chocolate accessories! Tickets were much cheaper, though still pricey, today, but well worth it! I could smell the chocolate as soon as I walked into the convention center. Yummy doesn't even begin to describe the experience! There were over 60 vendors there -from small chocolatiers to major manufacturers. And all most all of them were giving out free samples! I nearly ate myself sick on the most divine imported dark chocolates I've ever had. Each vendor was giving out teeny tiny pieces, but they were so rich and sweet that a sliver was enough. I tried a couple of kinds of truffles, chocolate with orange, chocolate with dried berries, chocolate with lavender and nougat, a chocolate filled with banana flavoured marshmallow creme and crunchy peanut butter, mint hot chocolate, strawberries and white chocolate hot chocolate, a peanut butter chocolate brownie bite, cinnamon swirl peanut butter, holiday hot tea, four dessert wines, white chocolate, chocolate with peppermint, a chocolate brownie with chili pepper, and so much more I can't even remember it all! There were a couple of chocolate fountains, chocolate sculptures, and the chocolate fashions on display. Barnes and Noble was there, too, with autographed dessert cookbooks. I sat in on a couple of demonstrations by chocolatiers showing how they create their masterpieces. And the peanut butter booth gave me peanut squeeze toys for my next class when I told them I'm a teacher! What a night! What a "dinner"!

the cookie that says "new york"

I had my first black and white cookie today, a decidedly New York experience, and a delicious one at that! A black and white cookie is, in fact, more like a flattened cupcake with a thin layer of sugar frosting on top. Cookie convenience with cupcake taste! According to Jerry Seinfeld (episode 74), the key to eating the cookie is to get a little black and a little white in each bite. Yummy!

I started classes again yesterday, and the professors have me sufficiently concerned about the workload. However, the first sessions were actually a bit boring. Housekeeping and introductions, per usual. I am excited, though, about what I'll be doing in the courses, particularly in one about techniques of assessment and intervention in reading.

I know I'm quite far behind in my posting, and my plan is to catch up on last weekend tomorrow morning before this weekend technically begins! Rest assured, all is well.

cream puffs, parks, and dog poo

This afternoon I met the Columbia Intervarsity Christian Fellowship group at the 116th gate to get cream puffs and visit Central Park. I ran across the event while browsing the clubs section of the Columbia site. Most of the Intervarsity events specified undergrad, but this one didn't, so I decided to show up. Well... I heard more than once, "Oh. You're a grad student? I thought you looked a little old... Ha ha." :-) Gee, thanks, guys. I found out later that most of them were returning students and that they expected the new faces to be freshman. I'm ok with looking older than a freshman in college. And even though I was the only grad student, they were all very friendly and I had fun.

We took the subway to 79th and stopped at Beard Papa's for cream puffs. They were delightful! Each puff is filled with fresh vanilla custard after it is ordered. They don't use any preservatives, so they say their treats should be eaten within 24 hours. Not a problem! The group leader bought three big boxes, and we walked over to Central Park to devour them and to chat. Check out their website for the full scoop: http://www.muginohousa.com/creampuffs.html.

Only downside to the afternoon? I stepped in dog poo. Not so delightful...