New year – more good times

After an ok new years eve my first week in the new week started off amazingly:
Good food, great people, loads of fun. And also being back at work after 1.5 weeks off was actually ok.

Cook off
Last week I had a cook off with a friend which was a lot of work for me, but also fun and I enjoyed cooking for someone else after more than a year.
My friend’s turn was on Friday and I was served semi-homemade salad, sweet and sour chicken on egg fired rice and then.. well.. the idea what was supposed to be dessert was worked out, but it was still to be made. To be honest, I was promised a two-course meal (even though I was expected to cook a 3-course dinner), so I was happy to help out while he did the dishes – I guess I chose the better option. It was a really niece evening with good food and while I enjoy cooking for others, it is also great when someone else makes the effort and cooks for you.

The following Wednesday it was my turn to cook, and I am not exaggerating when I tell you that I got really excited. Hence I first had a six-course dinner in mind which I wanted to cook, but I cut it down to four courses at the end: Smoked salmon wrapped in Austrian pancakes on Romain salad with french vinaigrette, spicy butternut squash soup, with minced beef filled courgettes on homemade Italian style tomato sauce with potatoes, and Austrian apple strudel with vanilla ice cream.
Yap, it was a lot to cook when you only get home at 6.30pm from work and your guest arrives (on time!! – sorry, that needed to be pointed out :-D) at 7.30pm. So I started cooking the evening before, the starter was ready at 8pm and dessert was served at around 9.30pm when my flatmates arrived from class. I was not 100% happy with any of the dishes, but I guess it was still good and I did enjoy having a big home cooked meal at my flat.

Latin night
On Saturday we went out to the Latin American club in Williamsburg, Brooklyn called Bembe: think tiny, dark, hot, sweaty. I was not really convinced at first, as I had the opinion that these kind of clubs provide an easy excuse for gross guys to get close to you (and this is politely put). But I had been surprised because even though it was over crowded and you could not move without pumping into another person, all men were really polite when dancing with you. They knew where their space was, where your space is and they respected that. We had a great time and even though we had to queue in the rain for 15-20min it was worth it – I felt like the girl in DD2 on Cuba (don’t judge me!).

Catchup Lunch in Harlem
Sunday I met my former flatmate for lunch at The Cecil im Harlem. I chose the spot as I always wanted to have brunch in Harlem, and this Asian-Carribean-African restaurant interested me for some time. Food was great (except of the dessert and believe me, that’s hard to admit), the wine was good and I enjoyed catching up with my friend who has now moved from NYC to London.

American Heroes
In the evening I met up with some friends to see the most americanized movie of the year: American Sniper. It involves war, patriotism, family drama, and heroes who die for their country. No music at the end, but depressive silence. Well, I’ve been told the movies was meant is to humanize American solders. Very deep, I know.

With such an amazing weekend, and first week after new year’s eve I started highly motivated into the week – even though I expected work to be busy and I had a final exam to take on Saturday.
Before I got to take the Global Business exam on Saturday we had a pretty cold week in NYC: up to –12*C and windchill –22*C. It’s save to say that I did not go running that week. Still, it was beautiful to walk in the cold but sunny weather, and on Friday it was snowing quite heavily: I looked like a little snow-woman when I walked my 5min walk to the PATH station, and I reckon around 1.5-2 inches of snow covered the ground by late morning.

After the exam, my friends and I attended a charity brunch in Newport which was alright (the mini dessert pastries were delicious) and even though I was motivated to go out at night I ended up having a movie night with my friend while trying to find her a future husband online. First we watched Love Actually (really girls – this movie as some funny scenes but it is too much! If we are waiting for miracles like this to happen, we will never find a husband) and then we watched The Interview (good movie, because it makes fun of both nations – America and North Korea. If you have the chance, you might want to watch it online).

And finally, we do know time is ticking away, so I also did some touristy things last week:
I walked along Battery Park which was freezing cold, but a very nice walk – I definitely recommend it – and I also went to one of the museums I still had on my bucket list: Museum of the City of New York in Upper West.

The museum changes its exhibitions regularly, but out of all of them I enjoyed most a movie about NYC and how it grew into the city it is today as well as amazing photographs of the city. I do recommend checking out their website and visiting it at some point (I’d say youneed around 2 hours to see everything in this museum). Since this museum is locatedon 5th Avenue (the Museum Mile) right next to Central Park I went for a snowy walk in the park, and ended my day with cloths shopping in SoHo, bread shopping at Balthazar and dinner at Amy’s Bread, where I had what is apparently the best grilled cheese sandwich in town. It was nicely seasoned but besides that, it was a normal swiss cheese and ham toast to me.

After New Year’s eve I was quite stressed out, that I only have 9.5 weeks left in this amazing city (yup, I am talking about the same city I was dreading moving to..). After this week though I am confident that I will be able to do and see everything I want to and will try to focus more on the “enjoying” part than on the “stressing to get everything done” bit. I really like that feeling I have right now, which is telling me that everything’s gonna turn out alright 🙂

Cultural week: sports, history, education, religion

How come that during the week, I am always worried that I don’t have anything to write about in my weekly blog post, and then so much has been going on that I feel like cutting down on content otherwise no one will ever read my post…?

Last week I experienced once more a lot of American culture, which I really enjoyed.
On Wednesday we went to a basketball game – New York Knicks vs. Washington Wizards in Madison Square Garden. Because it was a pre season game the crowd only got engaged towards the end of the fourth quarter, when the Knicks finally started leading in the game. Nevertheless it was fun to watch. I really like basketball because it’s a quick game and a lot of scoring is happening in a quarter.

On Saturday a friend and I decided go on a day trip to Princeton, to see the town, the university as well as an Ivy League college football game.
It was such a gorgeous fall day on Saturday so we took our time walking and admiring these old buildings at the campus before attending a campus tour for prospective students. It was great to hear the thoughts of a Princeton student on the unique selling points of Princeton University (e.g. free laundry), how exams are taken (no lecturer will sit in the room when students take exams), about the competitiveness of students at this university (very!) etc. She also pointed out some of the archways where often a cappella groups give performances (and we even run into one in the afternoon) as well as that Princeton University has the third largest university cathedral world-wide.

We then went to the south end of the campus to Princeton University Stadium where we watched the homecoming game Princeton vs. Harvard (Ivy League college football). Even though the game wasn’t the most exciting one – mainly because it was only the Harvard team which made a touch down after touch down – it was great soaking up the atmosphere and the sun.
We then spent the remaining afternoon exploring Nassau Street (on of the most lively streets in Princeton), the boutiques and 5+ ice cream shops (and many more desert places) in downtown Princeton. Before taking the bus back to New York City we had dinner in a nice little Italian restaurant, where I treated myself to the best steak I had so far in the US. Yum.
I definitely recommend visiting Princeton which is a cute town and which is home of my most favorite university campus of all the campuses I’ve seen so far (compared to Harvard, Columbia, NYU and Oxford in the UK).

On Sunday I started the beautiful day with a run in the sun which was the right decision to make as we had planned to have a “flat brunch” that morning. Let me tell you, the brunch we prepared was the least expensive but most delicious and filling brunch you can possibly get in NYC or NJ for that matter. Our table was set with breakfast burritos, pancakes (with Nutella, peanut butter, jam, honey, icing sugar), and a banana mango smoothie. A-M-A-Z-I-N-G.
We all felt like taking a nap afterwards, but we already made plans with friends so there was no going back to sleep, thankfully.

Now, here is a guessing game for you: what does a Catholic, a Muslim, a Hindu and a Protestant girl do on a Sunday afternoon? Exactly, they go to church 😀
After one of my friends (the Hindu girl) went to Hillsong Church last week and was extremely excited about it (she described it as a “rock service”), we decided to all join the Protestant girl when she attends the service to see what this is all about.
When we reached the 6th floor of Manhattan Centre and the bass beats made the walls vibrate I know that shewasn’t exaggerating. We went to the balcony of the theater and a band was playing Christian songs on a stage while people where standing, singing and clapping to the music. During the 1 hour and 40 min service we heard a phrases from the New and the Old Testament, saw a basketball performance and were taught how to be anointed everyday. And we prayed a little. Not too long. Maybe for 2-3 minutes. It was an interesting experience to see how Hillsong (a Protestant church which exists in several countries world-wide) moves these people.

Afterwards we went to Harlem Meer in the North of Central Park to watch artists carving pumpkins (mine is still waiting for me at home to get carved), pumpkins floating across the lake and to see many many cute kids and babies in their Halloween costumes (my favorites were duck, shark and dragon costumes for 0-3 year olds).

As you can imagine, this was another amazing week for me and because I am still getting asked, how my flatmates are and what the dynamic is like in my flat, I am glad to be able to tell you that all of last week’s activities I did with my flatmates. So yes, I am really happy with my flat situation as all four of us seem to work well together.

Summer in the city – one more time

After a busy week at work and at home with organizing future activities I was rewarded with a summerly weekend with over 80F.

We started the weekend with a Korean feast at Pocha 32 in Korea Town. My friend and I decided that the best we can do is letting our friend from Singapore order for us. However, I knew from the very beginning that he ordered for 5 people and not for three. So we had something like a Korean Hot Pot, Korean Pancakes, Korean BBQ beef and luckily the Korean rice cakes did not arrive on time and we were able to cancel those as we were already struggling with what we had on the table without the rice cakes. With the food we had a watermelon soju, which is what the restaurant is famous for. The food was delicious, and somehow we managed to finish it, which was hard work but a great way to start the weekend!

To make sure that I make good use of this amazing weather that weekend I put on my summer dress and went to Riverside Park which is next to Hudson River in Upper West. Everyone (meaning my American colleagues) was telling me beforehand how beautiful this park is, but since I am running next to Hudson River three times a week, I was not too impressed by the narrow park with river view. However the Boat Basin which is located around 79th street is lovely – it’s a small harbor (or maybe just some docks) with a café/restaurant situated at the pier. (Nothing we don’t have in Jersey, but still nice 😉 ). After the walk through the park, I got myself chocolate ice cream from the chocolatiers Jacque Torres. I can tell you now that is was really nice and rich in flavour which is true… but when I tell you it tastes like every chocolate ice cream which I get in Italy I wouldn’t by lying either..

Next stop was DUMBO in Brooklyn where an art festival took place that weekend. My expectations to see loads of great static as well as performing arts were not really met, as it seemed as the biggest part of the festivals was open-house arts studios as well as crafting activities for kids. One highlight however, was the contemporary dance performance by the dance company White Wave. Five pieces performed by five different groups of dancers with various nationalities were presented each hour and even though the level of technique varied a lot, each piece was interesting to watch.

On Sunday I started early to get another item from my bucket list – going for a run in Central Park.
And that was an adventure. Instead of 50 min it took me 90 min to get to Central Park, and by the time I was finally able to start running my motivation was very low. It did not help that the path went uphill right at the beginning. After 50 min and successfully ticking this item from my bucket list I can say that running in Central Park is overrated. There is a lot of traffic (and by traffic I mean other runners, walkers, dogs and cyclists) and the paths are ok (I crossed Central Park from the north end to the south end and made a loop around the reservoir in the middle of the park) but not as beautiful as the view I have when going for a run in Newport.

After getting all sweaty I decided to walk from the south end of Central Park (59th street) to the PATH station (33rd street) where I can get the train to NJ, instead of taking the subway to 33rd. Yeah.. remember when I wrote that it feels wrong to were blue jeans in Manhattan – now we got a whole new dressing experience: sweaty t-shirt and running shorts. But you know what? I figured as long as you walk with your head held high and the New York attitude – as if you own the world – you are just fine. 😉

Being totally exhausted, I received an invitation to go to Upper East for dinner and comedy, so off I went on another 50 min commute after two cups of coffee. We had dinner at an Latin American restaurant were we shared empanadas filled with minced beef as an appetizer. As second course I had four baked plantains dumplings (I’d rather say they were baskets) one filled with minced beef, one with chicken, one with shrimp and one with pulled pork. I never had a comparable dish and I enjoyed the different spices used in each filling. After grabbing candy at Dylan’s Candy Bar (they have a wall full of PEZ!) and walking around for a while to kill time we went to  Dangerfield’s Comedy Club.
I have never been to a comedy club so I can’t say how things work in any other city, but in NYC you have to get a ticket (which is rather cheap between $10 and $20) but then you are required to get two drinks each, which is how the club actually earns money. I do think that this is a fair offer, until I saw the prices. Holly Molly, two (tiny) glasses of Pinot Grigio – $23. The bottles of wine I buy at the store are cheaper than those two glasses. Anyway, this is not the reason why we went to that place anyway.
Thanks to our walk we were seated in the very back of the room with a small but mixed audience (groups of guys/girls, families, (married) couples, fuck-buddies (yap, the girl did say that in front of everyone after the comedian asked about their relationship), singles, white/black/Asian people – you could find everything in this audience), and believe it or not, we were the only people who were not talked to/talked about during the show. *success*
Usually these comedy shows are between 1 and 1.5 hours long so I did not worry too much even though the show only started at 8.30pm, but 2hours and 15min later and after 5 comedians, the show was still going on and another comedian entered the stage. You did get your money’s worth!
I had the plan to go to a comedy club in NYC for a while now, but I was never sure if I understood the jokes, which is why I didn’t go until that weekend. But most of the comedians and their jokes where really funny and I had a great time.
Even though Dangerfield’s is not one of the best known clubs and is smaller than the famous ones I can recommend going there if you want to have a good time.

You say good-bye, I say hello

Move week(end)

With my old flatmates moving out and new ones moving in, this week was mainly about cleaning, packing, throwing old stuff out and prepping for my new flatmates.

Thursday evening the good-byes started which was kind of sad actually, because my old flatmates became good friends of mine and I do know from experience that even though you try to keep in touch, it’s hard to stay in contact over a longer period without actually meeting each other.
On Saturday my friend (March intake) moved in from a different apartment and even though I tried to avoid all the hassle, I ended up pushing carts with her stuff from one building to the other to get her 1000 things to my flat. And on Sunday I finally met my three new August intake girls, which all seem to be friendly, extroverted and easy-going.

Since they arrived later than planned the busy move day became even busier – so we rushed to target to get them new bedding, they started unpacking and then we had to head out for brunch already – which is the Mountbatten bonding activity for the first weekend: food and unlimited champagne cocktails to get everyone to like each other. I am not a big brunch person (compared to others who spend endless amount of money on brunch every weekend, this was my second “bottomless mimosa brunch”), but I think all of us had a great time at Paradou in the Meatpacking district.
So will see how things go, but for now I feel confident that we will have a good atmosphere in our flat over the following months.

Other than moving…

Despite the stress with moving in and moving out, I managed to still explore NYC and gain new experiences:

American Football 

On Friday evening I went to the NFL Giants vs. Jets game at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.
Even though it was a preseason game which means that rookies are trying to make the team and fix players are likely not go give 100% because they don’t want to get insured before the actual season starts, I still decided to see this game because preseason games have following two advantages: the weather is still nice (you’ll be freezing your butt off in an open stadium in December..) and tickets are way cheaper (I am not willing to spend over $150 on a NFL ticket). At the same time, I was able to see the two rivaling New York teams, Giants and Jets, which guaranteed a good atmosphere in the stadium.
After after watching the game for 2.5h (I left by the end of the 3rd quarter), I can say that it is quite an entertaining sport as a lot is going on over the 3 hours or so a game lasts. So even though there are breaks all the time to go back to a certain yard line etc. you never get bored. I like it. It’s better than soccer anyway.

Central Park, once more

You might have noticed that I am worried about summer being over soon, which is why this was my 3rd weekend in a row on which I spent some time in Central Park. So Saturday afternoon I checked out the north part of Central Park where the Conservatory Gardens are located. This formal gardens consist of an English Garden, an Italian and a French one. They are great to look at and reminded me of Queen Mary’s Gardens in Regent’s Park, London, UK.

Eataly – Italian Food Market

On Saturday evening my new roommate and I decided to treat ourselves to Italian cheese, salami and a glass of red wine in the rooftop restaurant Birrerira of the Italian Market Eataly. The food was good (obviously), the wine was amazing, and the atmosphere relaxed. It was a great way for me and my foody friend Jen to start our new flatmate-era.

Even though I had a good week(end) overall, I have to say I am glad that’s over. I am glad that everyone has arrived and that we now can all go ahead with our life as usual.. Because that’s busy enough anyway.

Beach Boys, Eminem & Rihanna live

While I am stressed out during week with work, university papers and flat stuff (my newbies are arriving next week that means that there is some prep to do), I try to enjoy my weekend as good as possible. Unfortunately this means that my weekends are busy and full of activities, but I guess there are worse things in life 😉

Friday started off with an entertaining free summer concert in front of the FOX News building in Midtown. You would not guess who performed, so I help you – the Beach Boys!! Omg, I never thought that I will ever see the Beach Boys live, and there they were – old men entertaining a crowed with Surfin’ USA and Get Around. I am not 100% certain whether they performed live, but it was great seeing them in action nevertheless.

On Saturday I went for a stroll through Williamsburg – my favorite part of Brooklyn – and discovered cute bakeries and nice vintage shops along 6^th Street, Wythe Avenue and Bedford Avenue. I went for coffee in this French bakery/coffee shop Caprices by Sophie which had a nice little backyard – and this is only one of my beautiful Williamsburg finds.

After lunch at Smorgasburg – the food market in Williamsburg (Greek pita bread wrap with chicken and Tzatziki and an ice cream sandwich), I went back to get ready for my second concert of the week:

Eminem & Rihanna: Monster Tour at MetLife Stadium

I was super excited to go to my first Eminem concert, and by the cheers he received from the fans it was clear who the majority came to see. And it was not Rhianna. You can then imagine, how we (the majority) felt, when after the singers performed three songs or so together, Rihanna took over the stage for over 45 min. And no sight of Eminem. But then, the patient fans got rewarded and Eminem started his solo show after three more songs with Rihanna, and performed songs from various albums such as The Real Slim Shady, Toy Soldiers and Not Afraid. Some songs were performed the way they were originally recorded, for some he changed the rhythm and electronic music was mixed to it and some were performed as medley. His performance was amazing and I am very happy that I finally can tick the one concert of my bucket list, which I wanted to attend for 10 years now.
After Eminem’s solo performance, which was shortly interrupted by two or three more songs with Rihanna, they sung Monster, which was the finale of a great concert.

 

All Sunday I spent with my August intake flat mates as it was their last Sunday/weekend in NYC.
We started off with brunch at The Smith in Midtown and then headed North towards Guggenheim Museum. One of the flatmates were able to get me free tickets and therefore we visited the current Italian Futurism exhibition, and more importantly, I was able to see and walk through the NYC Guggenheim Museum. Even though it does look rather small (but still very impressive due to its unique structure) from the inside, there is quite a lot exhibition space when you go round and round until you reach the top.

 

Afterwards we walked through the middle section of Central Park to see The Belvedere Tower which is an astronomy tower, but it looks more like a castle. Whatever its purpose has been, it was beautiful to look at and once more I discovered a section of Central Park which I haven’t seen before. At the end of the day we treated ourselves to cookies von Levain Bakery and Chocolate from Jacque Torres. I’d say we had a lovely last Sunday together, which was eventful but relaxed at the same time.

Now it’s all about packing in my apartment ( not me though, as I only move to a different room), and soon its time to say good-bye to the August 2013 girls and to welcome my three new August 2014 girls in the apartment.

Thoughts of London in NYC

Funnily enough I was thinking of London and my time there quite a lot last week.
Firstly, because people asked me if I considered moving back to London. And my usual answer has always been, “no, seen it, done it, not gonna go back”. But this week I was thinking, well London is actually not a bad city to live in. Its offers to inhabitants are similar  to the ones you get in NYC.. I am thinking of culture, food, shopping, lifestyle in general. Plus there is a health system in place of which you can only dream of in NYC…
Secondly, I was thinking of London because I had so much work to do this week.. I haven’t worked this much for 7 months in one week I think. At one point it was so bad that I said after work that I need two drinks and I need to go for a run. In this order. And I usually don’t drink during the week. Now I understand again, why my weekday activities were non existing in London..
Thirdly, I saw a great picture of London (touristy with Big Ben, Parliament and London Eye) and just thought: man, it feels like ages ago that I lived in London, but these were good times as it’s a great city to live in.
So if you asked me now, do you consider moving back to London? My answer would be: why not?

Back to my life in NYC though:
Saturday I made sure to enjoy the lovely summer day outside, in Central Park to be precise. I listened to a free Gospel concert in the park after I had a small picnic close to Strawberry Fields with salad, a shaken iced tea from Starbucks and the Magnolia Bakery Cupcake of the month which was S’mores (better look up what this is, if you don’t know 😉 ). For being one of the best American cupcakes bakeries, I have to say that the Magnolia Bakery cupcake was good, but not extraordinary.
This was my second “treat of the month” this week, as I had an early start on Friday for getting once more a Dominique Ansel Cronut. The August flavor is yellow peach jam and black tea cream with peach icing on top. This time I picked it up at the bakery and had a Cronut breakfast at work. I personally think it was way better than the June Cronut.
Still, one Cronut at a time is more than enough. So sweet.

Saturday night we went to Culture Club in Midtown – THE 80s club in the city (so they say anyway). And this is what you get for $20 entrance fee: a neon colored, nicely air conditioned, but rather small club in Midtown with Pecman and Super Mario all over the place, as well as pictures of E.T., Michael Jackson and others, 80s and 90s sing along songs (unfortunately sometimes badly mixed), uni sex toilets and over priced drinks of course. Still, it was worth a night out as it IS fun to sing, scream and dance to “Girls just wanna have fun”.

Sunday lunch was another Restaurant Week three course prix fixe menu, this time I went with my flat mates to the New American cuisine restaurant David Burke Kitchen in SoHo.The food was good, the service nice and the ambience quite modern. More information about the restaurant and the food can be found in the food section of my blog.

After lunch I walked the streets through SoHo – I love the little boutiques there – and then enjoyed once more music in the park. This time I listened to a piano player and later to a Jazz band in Washington Square Park:
an hour for myself to take a breath, relax and to remember to enjoy life.

Amazing NY weekend full of highlights

My (3 day) weekend highlights all over New York:

Brooklyn:

Friday was dedicated to do something good for the community – and my working colleagues and I went to a school in Brooklyn (Bushwick to be precise) to paint a mural.

So from 10am to 1.30pm we painted like Picasso and created a masterpiece in a school’s play ground. Yeah, I have to admit, someone sketched the figures on the mural and we just had to paint within the lines. This volunteering event was sponsored by my company but hosted by New York Cares, and we happily painted to a girly playlist featuring Miley Cyrus, Pink and Taylor Swift.

Afterwards we were rewarded with a delicious lunch at Tutu’s but seriously, being out of the office on this beautiful day was reason enough to take part in this activity.

 

 

Bronx:

In the evening I went to one of the last (good) Yankee home games at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx. Great atmosphere and a great game – I got what I expected from a New York Yankees vs. Boston Red Sox game.

I had a great time as I still remembered the rules, I had a Yankees fan sitting next to me who celebrated the home runs and other points with me, and because the Yankees played so well that I was able to leave after 2.5h already. Yes, baseball can be an exciting game. But not, if it lasts for over 4 hours!
Oh, and the Yankees won: 6 – nothing.

Long Beach:

After an early start on Saturday to go for a run, we headed to Long Beach and tried to enjoy the ocean, beach and sun from 1pm – 5pm. “Tried to” because of course there were annoying kids playing right next to us.
But it was a beautiful day nevertheless as it wasn’t too hot.

And back in New Jersey we treated us with wine, cheese, crackers and other goodies.

Manhattan:

Sunday we headed towards the Central Park Boathouse, and on the way we saw a bit of the Pride Parade marching through Manhattan.

After arriving at Central Park we didn’t have to queue for a boat and soon were rowing on the lake for an hour. It was really good.. until we had to make our way back because the hour was nearly over and I (!) had to row like a maniac to make it on time.

After Thai food at Yum Yum Bangkok in Hell’s Kitchen we enjoyed the stunning view from Jen’s office, which is on the 47^th floor – no need to go up the Empire State or on Top of the Rock when you work in this office! Impressive!!!
And since I never ever had Frozen Yoghurt before we ended our afternoon at Off the Wall Frozen Yogurt. Oh my god. So good, and so dangerous because they provide this huge cups and it’s up to you to fill it! I had a bit of cookie & cream, salted caramel and peanut butter froyo, and loads of toppings. I will be back!

 

Yap, that was it – my amazing (almost) 3 day weekend. If that’s what life in NYC is like, then I am happy to stay!