Weekend in the City!

My first weekend in the city, I had the apartment all to myself! Friday night my roommate Hannah (the one who is on the designing shows) and her fiance and his little brother all came and stayed. The other 3 girls were out of town, so it was nice not to be alone that night and to meet some new people! Saturday I trekked down to the Museum of Natural History (ok, trekked is not really the right word. It's less than 10 blocks). I was secretly excited about this outing, as the museum was the setting of Ben Stiller's Night at the Museum, which I love. But, the museum definitely has a lot more history than that, as it is well over 100 years old. I whipped out my student ID and got a major discount (hey! they don't know I'm not still in school!) and I was on my merry way. The place is HUGE. And the map was not very helpful. Needless to say I wandered most of the time. Let me tell you, this museum spares no expense in showing people the circle of life. Here are some of my favorite pictures that may or may not be appropriate:

Please, read this. 

That's a polar bear. He is EATING a seal, hence the blood. The seal's face is tormented. Little kids asked lots of questions.

There were a lot of other strange pictures, but I will spare you. I wandered around for about 2 hours, saw most of the big attractions, then got bored and decided it was time to head on out. Overall, it was a really cool place, I highly recommend it!

Sunday, I woke up early, which I was not too happy about as I had hoped to finally catch up on some sleep. I had been wanting to check out Strawberry Fields in Central Park, and it just so happened to be John Lennon's birthday. Now, I had been looking forward to the nice cool fall weather in NY since we don't get a fall at home. I checked the weather, and it was a cool 85 degrees outside. Wait, WHAT?! I pretty much only brought cold weather clothes. Angrily, I put on my shorts and t-shirt and headed out into the heat. There was a neat street fair going on outside my apartment, so I strolled through that and picked up some fresh squeezed lemonade and headed down to the park. About 5 blocks into my walk, I decided that I would rather take the subway down since Strawberry Fields is at 72nd street and my apartment is on 89th. I got off the subway, and was hit by a massive crowd headed to the sacred area. The building across from the fields is the famed Dakota, where Lennon lived with Yoko Ono and where he was murdered. Each year on his birthday (and death day) she walks across to the park and mourns and celebrates with the fans. Sadly, I did not see Yoko. But I did see lots and lots of singing hippy people. Facepaint and all. However, standing around listening to all these different people from different parts of the globe happily singing the same songs (and in tune, too!) was a really neat experience. Uncharacteristically, I walked back to my apartment through the park and marveled, as I do each day, that I actually live in this monstrous place. 

Hippies in the park, with the Dakota in the back

Sunday night I met up with a girl that I had emailed back and forth while trying to find a place to live, and we went to the Sunday night Redeemer service. It was great, and I officially made my first New York friend! Her name is Heather, she is from Seattle, and is doing a book editing internship for the same length as mine. We are going to go exploring this weekend, so stay tuned for that. 

Monday was Columbus day, so I got the day off! I decided to go down to Tiffany's of 5th Ave to get my chain fixed, as it had broken shortly before I got here. I can't tell you how this happened, but I got up to the customer service floor and pulled out my necklace, and it was magically fixed. Now, I am not crazy. I KNOW that my necklace snapped right next to the clasp. The lady pulled it out, and it was perfect. So she looked at me like I was crazy, and I headed back home. I got stuck in the first annual Columbus Day parade, so I decided to check out the Apple store next door to see the tribute to Steve Jobs:

Truly amazing. People from around the world were still leaving tributes almost a week after his passing.

Monday night my friend Scott from work invited me to hang out with him and his girlfriend Ashley (yes, Ashley from the Bachelor). She was so sweet and welcoming and we ate one of the best kinds of New York pizza! My first weekend was awesome and I am so thankful to have made some new friends. Stay tuned for the next post, in which I will tell you why passing out on the subway is not a fun experience (I know, you're all really surprised). 

Thanks for reading!