TEX and the City: July 2009

This summer has absolutely flown by! I can't believe that I only have 30 days left in New York! It's been great but I feel like I still have so much I want to do, so much I want to see, and more crazy experiences I want to have!

I did finally get to be somewhat of a tourist this past week. My friend Chelsea came into town last weekend and we had the best time! Friday we went to see Ground Zero (looks just like a random construction site) and the New York Stock Exchange. Since 9/11, the NYSE is no longer open to visitors, and no matter how much you flirt with the security guards and how hard you bat your pretty little eyes, they won't let you in to see all the action. Dang.

After that we went to Chelsea (the neighborhood) so that Chelsea (the girl) could take a bunch of pictures of stuff that said her name. I'm pretty sure if there was an Elizabeth neighborhood, I would do the same thing. We saw the Chelsea Market which was really neat and we had some yummy gelato there and chatted it up with a cool gelato guy from Italy. That night we had reservations for Restaurant Week at Mesa Grill, Bobby Flay's restaurant, and it was sooooo yum! Chelsea wanted to go there because she is a Bobby Flay stalker and a Food Network nerd. She makes me proud :)

Saturday and Sunday I had to work, but we still got to hang out in the afternoons and evenings. We hit up some open bars (love the free booze,) spent Chelsea's life savings at H&M, and had ice cream at the world's first Hagen Daaz shop, which is like 2 blocks from my apartment, who knew! We also did the NBC Studio tour which was awesome, they even took us in the studio where they shoot Saturday Night Live!! And, of course, we went up to the Empire State Building and took TONS of pictures. Chelsea's visit was short, but I'm so glad she came! It was really nice to have a familiar face around for a while. AAAND my 3 best friends arrive in 5 days!! Can't wait to see them as well!

Here's a photo of Chelsea and I living it up in the city!

We had another fun concierge event at work: a BOAT PARTY!! It was sooooo much fun, even though I got a little motion sickness. There was great music, great food, and best of all, a great view of the whole city! If you visit New York, I highly suggest the Circle Line Cruise, it's tons of fun! I felt like such a tourist just clicking away with my camera:

There she is! First up close glance at Lady Liberty! I took like 3627782 of this exact same picture, got a little carried away :)

A more zoomed in view. Unfortunately, she's smaller than I expected, but it was still cool to see her. My boss came up to me while I was snapping photos and said "Don't ya just feel like a real American now?" As if I wasn't a legitimate American before.... what an idiot.

Look at all the sailboats!!!!

Pirate ship!! Arggg, matey.

Such an awesome view.

More Manhattan.

Approaching the Brooklyn Bridge.......

Going under the Brooklyn Bridge.......

Coming out the other side of the Brooklyn Bridge!

The Manhattan Bridge, nice, but not as awesome as the Brooklyn Bridge.

.....to update my blog :/ Or maybe I'm just SUPER busy traipsing all over New York. Or maybe I'm just lazy. hahaa, you decide :)

Anyway, it has been a few weeks since my last post and so much has happened! Most importantly, I FINALLY got a part time job since I have to keep paying rent back in Austin. I got a job teaching swim lessons to little kids at this camp in Park Slope in Brooklyn. I've taught lessons before so it's no big deal, just glad to be getting somewhat of a paycheck again! Although, it is kind of lame since it takes away a lot of my weekend time, but I guess I gotta do what I gotta do!

My internship has gotten a little more interesting, although, my boss is still the most annoying man on the planet and sometimes I want to throw up on him when he talks. Other than that, I've been learning a lot of new and different things and from all my experiences I can tell that the job market won't be too desolate when I graduate. I should have more than just a few options, so that's a little comforting.

Speaking of my internship, all these cool concierge events we host are so fun to go to! Last night we had one at the new Titanic exhibit and it was soooooo interesting to get to see that. They had all types of artifacts from the ship and it was just crazy to see everything that was sunken under the ocean for almost 100 years. They has stuff like shoes, dishes, money, and actual pieces of the ship. It's crazy to think that those were someone's shoes at one point in time. Kind of creepy, but definitely a cool experience. Next week we have another event on a boat that goes around the island, and I'm sooo excited! It's like the New York version of booze cruise!!

After the exhibit last night, my roommate Kirsten (who came with me to the event) and I were famished so we wanted to grab a quick dinner. Since the exhibit was in Times Square, we figured we would just find somewhere to eat around there. BAD IDEA. We stopped in at a T.G.I.Fridays and as we were looking through the menu I almost had a heart attack: $18 for a burger at FRIDAY'S???!!!!! And $22 for some crappy pasta dish, are you freaking kidding me?! I couldn't even believe it, the prices were sooooo much higher than any Friday's I had ever been in, what gives them the right to mark up the prices by nearly 100%? I was absolutely blown away, that kind of thing makes me so angry! We ended up staying (not my idea) and Kirsten orded a soda that turned out to be $4.50! At least I know now not to eat in any kind of chain restaurant near Times Square EVER AGAIN, unless I want to run out of money and become a homeless hooker or something.

I love it here, but the worst thing about New York is how expensive it is to live here. Rent prices are crazy, restaurant and bar prices are ridiculous, and even groceries are absurdly expensive. There is a store called Gristedes across the street from my dorm, too bad I can't shop there since I don't have a damn trust fund. $6.50 for a frozen dinner, $7 for a small box of Cheerios, $5.50 for some peanut butter, NO THANK YOU! Those Cheerios better come with a free helicopter ride for that price!

Anyway, I guess I should stop bitching about the prices up here, seeing as how I wanted to move here so badly, but just be thankful that you can buy normal groceries at normal prices!

My roommates and a big group of our friends went to Atlantic City for the 4th of July, so I just chilled out for a few days and I was really sad that I wasn't at home on the lake eating some yummy bar-b-que with my favorite people :( It was a nice holiday nonetheless, a few friends from my dorm and I went to see the Macy's fireworks which were cool, even though we had a really crappy view from 11th Ave. Here are are few pictures from the show:

It was hard to get a good shot with all the buildings and people in the way.

This one is kind of cool.

This one would have been way better if that dumb kid wasn't in the way.

This one's my favorite, it's blurry but still really sweet.

Here's some of the group we went with, J.M., Yolanda, Alyssa, me and Chris.

The Chrises (Chris Corales and Chris Lorn) and I went exploring in Chinatown and Little Italy, here are some photos from our adventure:

We came across Ferrara, according to Chris Lorn it's famous, Google it.

Yuummmmmmmy treats at Ferrara. If this place isn't actaully famous, then it should be, because it's delish!

Look at all the goldfish!! So cool! Love the Chrises and love the fishes! :)

I was like a giddy little school girl when we found this! It was posted on a lightpole for people to move their cars because Gossip Girl was going to be filming on that street. I kinda wanna go check it out..... don't judge me!

The following photos are just a hodge podge of my NYC adventures.... BE JEALOUS! :)