New York: Day 5

My last day in this wonderful city.

As per usual, Mara and I got going late morning.  We were surprised with this view upon exiting her dorm - apparently, it had snowed overnight.

Everything was covered in this light layer of snow - so, as a California girl whose only winter in New York three years ago was a relatively mild one, I was gawking and snapping photos everywhere we went.  Everything looked so enchanted and magical.  It was, obviously, quite cold, but I didn't care because everything was so beautiful.

We went to Pie for lunch, crossing off the last food-related item on my to-do-in-New-York list.  Pie is a thin-crust pay-by-the-pound pizza place on 4th Avenue, just south of Union Square, and during freshman year we came for lunch every Friday.  We got to know the owner quite well, and he came in and saw us and recognized me and Mara!  I couldn't believe he remembered me - he noticed I'd chopped off my hair, remembered meeting my parents, and came in with a, "hey, it's just like old times, the gang is back!" (It was just me, Mara, and Joel who were able to come, but back then it had been our entire floor).  His name is Jeff, and he used to tell us many stories, such as being a small child living in Miles Davis's building and seeing him on the elevator.  It was the first time I'd gotten to see Joel, and he wound up being the only one of the three guys from our friends I ever got the chance to see while I was out there this trip.  Mara's boyfriend Zach was there too but Jeff didn't know him.

Pizza selections at Pie

My lunch

L-R Me, Joel, Mara, Zach

After Pie, Joel left, and Mara, Zach and I went up to the Met, where I'd planned to spend a lot of time with the things I'm learning in my ancient art history class this semester.  However, like I mentioned in the previous entry, the Met is large, intimidating, and crowded with tourists, and I got overwhelmed with the extensiveness of the exhibits - just the Egypt wings alone would have taken an entire weekend.  I only managed to find a couple things my professor had told me to find.  What I was most excited about - the Ancient Near East - was completely closed off, and so most of my artifact scavenger-hunt missions were foiled.   We went through some of the paintings and admired some Monet and Van Gogh, then found this chinese garden that's apparently difficult to locate, so at least I saw something new before I wanted to leave.  That museum is way to big to enjoy casually.  Fortunately, it is pay-as-you-wish, so I had again only given $2 entry and didn't feel like it was a big waste of money.

A view inside the Temple of Dendur, housed inside the Met

One of many, many rooms of Greek vases

Roman mosaic from Lod, Israel - Mara, who just spent a semester in Tel Aviv, has stood in the spot this was taken from.

All I could see of the Ancient Near East exhibit, which was closed off.

Haystacks - Monet

Mara and I in the Met's Chinese Garden

Upon leaving the Met, there was a cupcake cart parked strategically outside the front steps, and we fell to temptation and bought some.  I got a "whooziwhatsit" which had caramel and other deliciousness in it, and also a mocha coffee.

Brilliantly located cupcake cart

Cupcake and a mocha on a cold winter's day - brilliant.

We decided to walk through Central Park for a bit, since I was so enchanted with the snow covering everything.  I'll let the pictures do the talking for that.

Bridge, snow, and an Egyptian obelisk outside the Met (just to the right out of the shot).

Mara and I in Central Park.

Mara and Zach walking through the park.

The Conservatory Water, with Alice in Wonderland at the far end of the frozen pond.

Hans Christian Anderson statue by the Conservatory Water

Snow.

After a nice walk through the park, we got on the subway, and said goodbye to Zach (he had a different stop) before getting back to Mara's.  I finished getting things together, and she walked me to the subway I needed to take the airport, and we said goodbye.

A note about transportation to/from JFK: I always take the subway/airtrain combo.  The Airtrain connects all the terminals to the Sutphin Blvd. subway station, which services the J and E trains.  Each Airtrain ride is $5, and from there you figure out your subway fare (single fare is $2.25 now, but there are unlimited cards for set amounts of time as well).  This is far and away the best way in and out of Manhattan, provided you don't have too much luggage (getting on/off subways and through turnstyles being the major consideration).  Taxis run up to $80, with tax and tip and everything included, so if you are a single traveller it's obvious which is the better option.

So, I got on the subway and took the long ride on the J train to JFK airport.  The terminal was closed and I had to go around a sketchy back way to a different terminal, and my bag was enormously heavy (after getting inside I put all my coats in my bag since I was no longer going to be in New York weather), and my gate was a great distance away, so I was pretty miserable by the time I got to the gate, but I made my flight with plenty of time.

I was so sad to leave, but I had such a wonderful visit.  I'm going to be looking into the faculty and various music schools over the next while, because I'd forgotten how much I missed living in the city until this trip, and that seems like the most likely way I'll get to go back for at least 2 years (a potential Master's program).

Anyway, thank you all for reading.  If I don't update on a random Los Angeles adventure before, I will be back to this March 31, when my school's wind ensemble goes on a trip up the California coast.

P.S.  I took far more photos than I've been posting on this blog.  To see all photos from this New York trip, visit my Flickr album.

New York: Day 3

What a spectacular day.

The wonderful weather left.  Mara and I got going around noon, and when we went outside it was 40, with a windchill factor of 30, and there was light snow blowing through the air.  I had layered up, but was still quite cold.

We went to Bagel Bob's, which has the most delicious bagels with the most generous amount of cream cheese ever.  They have a cream cheese variety menu as long as their bagel variety menu... I opted for cinnamon raison bagel and plain cream cheese, and a hazelnut coffee.  Wonderful breakfast.

Lucky shot of Mara while the front door was opening.

Bagel with hazelnut coffee... perfect breakfast.

Mara continued her streak for running into random people while I'm in town, and saw her aunt and uncle walk by Bagel Bob's while we were in it (they are Florida natives, so this is an unusual sighting).  Her cousin is having a baby in the next few days, so it made sense, but still a surprise!

After Bagel Bob's we went up to Union Square, where there was the usual craft / farmer's market going on.  We sampled some jams, browsed the cheese and produce, and enjoyed a bit of sunshine (it was still snowing, despite there being hardly a cloud in sight - strange) before getting on the subway and going out to Brooklyn to see the Brooklyn Museum.

Mara trying some jams in Union Square - the red building in the background is the Barnes & Noble where on our first day of classes at NYU freshman year we went to a Bill Clinton book signing and shook his hand.

The Brooklyn Museum is pretty neat.  We only saw about 2/5 of it... it's a pretty large museum.  We started out with African arts, then we happened upon a Norman Rockwell exhibit, which was really fantastic.  It was an exhibit showing his photography and how he used it to compile images for his paintings.

The Brooklyn Museum

The Norman Rockwell exhibit - no photos were allowed inside, unfortunately.

Then we went up to the second floor, which had the Beaux-Arts, Ancient Near East, and Egypt.  Mara loved the Beaux-Arts, making her feel like she was back in Europe.  I just finished a unit of the Ancient Near East in my Art History class, and enjoyed the small exhibit they had for that.  The Egypt exhibit was large, and had really neat objects in it, but wasn't layed out very well and I got bored / lost.

Mara enjoying the European paintings

Myself in front of some Ancient Near Eastern art.

Then we came back to Manhattan, and got ready for our respective evenings.  Mara had another Israel group get-together, and I had a show to go to.

First, I met with Emily at Nanoosh, a hummus restaurant, and got a labane wrap with tabouleh, which was very yummy.  Then we went to an Italian place called Rocco's to pick up some dessert (I got some chocolate covered strawberries), and went to The Bitter End on Bleeker Street, a semi-famous music venue, to see my friend Isaac from high school play with his band, Sam Reider and the Lost Boys.

Labane wrap with Taboule

Strawberries from Rocco's

WOW THEY WERE ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC!!!  You MUST check them out.  They. Killed.  So great... I don't even know how to describe it... and my friends loved it too.

Isaac soloing in his band at the Bitter End

It was my first time seeing Isaac in a few years, and it was really cool to see him play.  He is a trombone major at Manhattan School of Music, and has always been an amazing musician.  We were very close friends in middle school, and transferred to the same out-of-district high school where we continued to play in music ensembles together.  Hopefully we'll be able to reconnect before I go back to California and catch up a bit more, but it was great to see him.

Isaac and I before he went on.

Emily, Brittany and I

Emily, Dani, and Brittany - the NYU friends who had accompanied me to see Isaac play.

After they were finished playing, Mara was still out in Brooklyn, so I went with Dani and Brittany to a bar they really like called the Crocodile Bar at 14th street and 2nd avenue.  It was not very close, and my shins are now sore from all the fast walking in my still-unfamiliar boots, but it was a pretty neat little hangout.  It had several rooms extending very far back, and in the farthest back room they had oldschool games like skeeball and pacman.  You also got free pizza with your drinks, so we ordered a couple beers and had some fresh oven-baked pizza (you could literally watch them make it).

Brittany and skeeball at the Crocodile Bar.

The subways were running on different tracks, and it took me a long time to figure out the right one to take back to Mara's so I didn't get back until after 2 (I'd left the Crocodile Bar at 12:45 or so).  I was exhausted, but it was overall a great day - seeing Isaac play was definitely a highlight of my trip so far.  Great music, old friend on stage, NYU friends having a blast with me... I couldn't have asked for a better evening.