Maybe We Should Have Gone to Hoboken, and Other Adventures

Oh, hello! I haven’t forgotten about you, dear blog, I’ve just been (all together now) SO BUSY! So, a collection of Adventures:

Saturday

We honored the 15th anniversary of the publication of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by going to see Potted Potter, which was absolutely brilliant. Probably the funniest 70 minutes I’ve had in a while, Potted Potter felt like I was watching my friends make jokes (looking at you, Emmy). The jokes were largely things we’ve all laughed about before (“It’s like there’s two parts of the last book, they camp, and then everyone dies. They should make it into two movies, the first part with all the camping, the second part with all the dying.”), but on a bigger, more ridiculous scale. There was also a really epic game of Quidditch, played by the audience and some really violent 8-year-old seekers. It was AMAZING.

After the play, we went to Barcelona Bar, which serves a legendary Harry Potter shot. There was fire, wizards hats, and a lot of awesome. I really need to go back, there’s apparently a Game of Thrones shot (you drink or you die, I hear…). We ended the evening at Pizza Pub for a slice of pizza and a bar-wide sing along with “Don’t Stop Believing.”

Wednesday

One of my good friends in the program is from Brazil, and I was determined to give her a proper Fourth of July. With no grill and no place to go, we decided to have a cook IN. In true New York fashion, we squeezed about 15 people into a space that comfortably seats maybe 6 and with only a minor mishap with the broiler (it’s not Independence Day without some singed fingers, right?) we had a delicious meal of burgers, hot dogs, and various other American foods, including berries and homemade whipped cream!

In which we fail at taking self-portraits and I am too short.

After an excellent pot luck dinner, we headed out for the fireworks. There was some debate over where to go, and we ended up splitting up. Half the group went to Hoboken for the show. The rest of us, deciding they were crazy to go to New Jersey of all places decided to do what real Americans do and go west randomly. It worked for the pioneers, right? Somewhere around 59th St, we stumbled onto the viewing section on the highway, and I stumbled into some sneaky thorn bushes in the divide. But the scratches and sore feet were worth it; we were ready for what we were sure was going to be the best view of the fireworks in the city….except for the trees. Low and behold, when the big boom started, there were trees perfectly blocking our view!

But, the night was not a loss! With some more wandering we managed to find a better view of the show, and following the sea of people through the streets afterwards, we ended up in Times Square. Remember last time when I was talking about the throb of the city? There is no better place to feel excited and alive than Time Square at night, especially after a day of celebrating and firework-watching with your friends.

Friday

Friday was field trip day! We got to go to NYU Bookstore and watch the Espresso On Demand Book machine, which was pretty cool. Then we got some delicious Mexican food in Union Square before heading to Books of Wonder to meet the wonderfully enthusiastic Peter Glassman. One of the things I love best about this program is meeting all the people who are as unabashedly passionate about books as I am, and Mr. Glassman might be one the most passionate people I’ve met. We sat on the floor for an hour listening to him talk about his favorite books and tell us stories about the industry and basking in the glow of his enthusiasm. It was a wonderful afternoon.

I think that’s about it for the big stuff. We went on several field trip in the past few weeks, including a trip to Macmillan in the Flatiron Building which was really neat. We got to see the CEO’s office, which has a balcony overlooking Madison Square Park. It’s one of the prettiest views of the city I’ve seen!  I also went to the MOMA on Friday and reaffirmed that I don’t really understand modern art. I prefer paintings. I loved seeing Van Gogh’s Starry Night and Monet’s Reflections of Clouds on the Water-Lily Pond. I couldn’t believe how big the water lilies painting was! I always imagined them to be about the poster size that was in one of my high school teacher had on his wall, but the canvas was almost the size of the wall! It was gorgeous.

That brings us up to date! My adventures in the city since last time. Now, this blog post is already too long, which means I need to post more often. But for now, I’ll sign off here!